Opportunity
For more than 75 years, Sarasota Orchestra has brought world-class musical performance to its community, yet without a concert hall purpose-built for acoustic music, the organization has never had a home equal to its ambition.
When a longtime benefactor committed a cumulative $60 million investment toward Sarasota Orchestra’s future Music Center, which will introduce the first concert hall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Orchestra leadership desired to announce a landmark gift in a way that honored the donor’s wishes, unified stakeholders around a shared vision, and moved an entire community to believe in the project’s inevitability.
Approach
A gift of this magnitude, one of the largest to any orchestra nationwide and a record-setting philanthropic investment for a performing arts organization in Florida, required more than a press release. It required a carefully sequenced communications plan that built internal alignment first, managed media thoughtfully and gave the moment the ceremonial weight it deserved.
Working alongside Sarasota Orchestra leadership, Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero and campaign counsel, our team leveraged two preexisting events already on the calendar for the reveal of the Orchestra’s 25/26 season, including an internal briefing for musicians and staff, and the public season reveal for Orchestra donors and subscribers. We strategically incorporated the gift announcement into these existing gatherings, allowing the news to reach key stakeholders already assembled for the season launch.
This approach allowed people closest to the Orchestra's mission the opportunity to hear the news first, process it personally and become advocates rather than bystanders. Six representatives of the professional orchestra and its education programs were selected to represent the organization with prepared remarks and a symbolic rose presentation for the public program, turning the announcement into something heartfelt.
On the media side, we coordinated an embargoed outreach strategy with the arts writer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, facilitating an advance interview with the CEO to provide context before the embargo lifted. Additional media interview opportunities with McKenna and Guerrero were coordinated throughout the following days to extend earned media reach, and the Orchestra shared the news on social media, and distributed an email to its list of more than 40,000 subscribers.
Impact
We secured earned media coverage with a potential reach of 7.6 million, a front-page story in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and coverage in national arts and philanthropy trade publications. The celebration unified musicians, staff, patrons and donors at a pivotal moment and positioned the gift as a catalyst for future philanthropy, with messaging designed to inspire broader community investment in the Music Center project.
