The History Theater Inc.
Background and Purpose
Founded thirty years ago, the History Theatre’s current mission is that it “inspires, entertains, and provokes audiences by creating and producing new works that explore Minnesota’s past and the diverse American experience.”The theater is guided by a core belief that “history provides a unique lens through which one can see and understand contemporary issues.”
The theater has three primary components: each year it produces a season of new plays and musicals produced each year that illuminate history; Raw Stages - a program to develop new work for production on the stage; and an education program which brings students to the theater for discounted matinees, provides teachers with study guides and hosts post-performance discussions.
Since its inception, History Theatre has commissioned and produced over 100 world premiere plays and musicals by over 90 playwrights and composers. Each year, nearly 50,000 people (including 9,000 students) see productions at the History Theatre. The theater regularly makes free or discounted tickets available to low-income youth and families. All in all, over 30% of all tickets are discounted or free.
This past year has brought many recognitions and accomplishments including “Best of” accolades in The Star Tribune and City Pages; a 2007 Ivey Award for the portrayal of Wellstone!; the development of History Theatre plays in seven other states; and three world premieres and two new plays in Raw Stages that are part of the 2008-09 season. A 15-member board of directors oversees a 10 member staff and artistic team. Over 250 volunteers work with the theater each year.
Current Request
August of 2007, the theater was $425,000 in debt. And while the artistic director had been with the theater for fourteen years, the administrative side had experienced much more staff turnover. Ticket sales decreased due in part to the economy and to competition with the expanded Guthrie Theater. The theater then hired two seasoned professionals to lead the administrative side: Kathleen Hansen as Managing Director in the summer of 2007 and Barbe Marshall as Development Director in the fall of 2008.
Since Kathleen joined the organization, she has succeeded in chipping away at the debt, reducing it to $373,000. She has also increased individual support by creating better database tracking, list generation, new donor levels and ways to recognize donors, board hosted donor house parties, online donation opportunities and a new e-blast system.
As a result of her leadership, individual giving grew to 12% of the budget, with contributed support totaling almost 50% of overall revenue. Ultimately, in comparison to FY07, History Theatre demonstrated an increase of 27% in total dollars raised. The History Theatre is now requesting a $50,000 matching grant to build on the momentum and to inspire community members to support the theater.
Long-term goals include eliminating debt load in five years and changing their business structure to sustain the theater into the future. For FY09 the goals are to increase individual giving by 53% from FY08 - from $150,000 to $230,000; increase the number of donors by 50 to 600; increase the average gift size from $229 to $251; and meet individual giving benchmarks set in their FY09 assumptions. One of the main strategies that they’ll use to meet these goals is to increase the board’s capacity to raise money.
The newly configured and trained board will work closely with the new Development Director who has created a Development Committee that includes both board and community members.