Getting Donors’ Views Helped an Alliance Get Off the Ground

The process of merging can be a telling fund-raising moment for organizations, since they often have to raise money to cover costs related to the collaboration. It can portend future successes—or not.

One collaboration that has gotten off the ground with promise is an alliance between the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Dance Theater Workshop. In March 2010, officials from the groups began to reach out to the foundations and corporations that had supported the troupes over the years to involve them before the groups merged.

They pointed out that the merger was designed to deal with two problems: Dance Theater Workshop was deep in debt and had two stages that it didn’t use regularly—and the Jones-Zane organization was desperate for more rehearsal and performance space. From those talks, the two groups, now called New York Live Arts, raised about $800,000 of the $1.2-million needed for the transition costs related to the merger, which was completed in February.

“The commitment of those funders is vital, not simply to completing the merger but to the ongoing success of the entity,” says John MacIntosh, a partner at SeaChange Capital Partners, a New York organization that aids charities that want to merge. It gave $93,000 to cover some parts of the merger costs.

‘Great Opportunity’

The dance company, which had mainly sought donations from individuals, had an annual budget that ranged from $2.5-million to $3.2-million. The theater workshop had a $2.5-million budget, 30 percent of which came from ticket sales and space rental, with the rest coming from grant makers. “We didn’t see a lot of overlap of funders,” says Jean Davidson, executive director of the merged group. “We didn’t want to cannibalize our funding stream.”

Today, New York Live Arts has a $5.8-million budget and is about to send out an appeal to persuade individuals to support the organization through a membership program. “We’re just several weeks into the merger and are starting to implement one of our plans,” Ms. Davidson says. “It’s a great opportunity when you come to a process like this.”