End of year ask (10 minute version) (fft’s version)

This year’s end of year goal is a big one — $20,000 before the the calendar year rolls over. Here’s why:

It’s been a while. We haven’t been able to safely gather for a gala in two years and we haven’t felt right coming out hard with a fundraising campaign when we weren’t producing live theater, when our supporters were and are personally impacted by the pandemic in different ways. We’re grateful to be vaxxed/masked/boosted and working to return to work, bringing you our first live production in nearly two years, while navigating a continually shifting landscape. We hope you’re staying safe and well this holiday season. We’re sending our love.

Bigger to be better. We all hear “this coming year will be bigger and better” a lot during end of year giving campaigns. You’ve heard it from us in the past. While FFT has been dark for twenty months, we have taken stock of our producing practices and our company culture, created actionable benchmarks for change, and to achieve this, ensured our budget reflects our values. We are putting our money where our mouth is. But, because we’re a nonprofit who relies on donors like you to reach our income targets without raising ticket prices, we’re asking you to do the same. This year’s budget is the same as our ’19-’20 budget…except we’re only doing two mainstages instead of three. 

We are taking the budget of that third mainstage and using it to:

  • Increase artists stipends across the board but most dramatically (see what we did there?) for the artists who will be returning to regular in-person work: actors, directors, and stage management. We are pleased to say our actor compensation is now among the most competitive for non-union work in the city.

  • Add a full week of rental into each of our tech schedules to eliminate 10 out of 12s. If you’re not familiar with 10 out of 12s or the call to eliminate them, you can learn more here.

  • Account for unpredictable ticket sales (and unpredictable everything else). As we've seen in just the time between initially writing this campaign and our week-of-Christmas update, the landscape has shifted around us. Donations -- and not ticket sales -- are imperative to ensure we have the cash flow to pause, protect, and plan whenever needed.

  • Pay for a multi-cam production team to shoot and edit excellent archival footage early in the run as a pandemic precaution (in the event we have to stream a play, we want you to have the best at-home experience possible.)

  • …ok, yeah, we upped some of the design budgets too. If we’re coming back, it’s going to be a trademark FFT all caps WILD moment. No spoilers, but there’s a squash game on stage in Botticelli in the Fire.

We are intending to go back to three mainstages in ’22-’23. But only if we can do it right. Only if we can grow our income this year to safely account for all of these budget increases in a three-show season. Your contribution now means we can plan for the future means we can budget higher means we can apply for higher foundational granting levels and become eligible to apply at new-to-us foundations means…you get the idea.

It all starts with you, today.

A final note about how we’re entering this ask: we are proud to tell you that while we were dark, we eliminated all of our debt and established a cash reserve. We hope the era of living ticket sales check to ticket sales check for the small theaters that are the lifeblood of the Chicago theater community is over but that too is only sustainable if our supporters share in this mission. 

Don’t worry, just because we’re saving for our future and sincerely asking you to help fund a values-based budget increase, doesn’t mean we won’t end an ask with a gif. We are still us, after all.

We love you. We miss you. We can’t wait to see you back in the audience.

Thank you.

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