Flagship Corporate Alliance
Dallas Corporations Raise Nearly $3 Million for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts in First Year

Philanthropy World
Volume 11 / Number 1, 2006

By William H. Lively, president and CEO, Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation

The nine-year campaign to build the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is at the mid-point. The campaign’s goal is to raise $275 million − $257 million from the private sector − to design, construct and equip the venues that comprise the Center, including the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House; the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre; the redesigned Annette Strauss Artist Square; the Grand Plaza, the Center’s outdoor connecting areas; and an underground parking structure. The City Performance hall will be designed and funded by the City of Dallas.

Many major milestones have been accomplished, paving the way for completion of the campaign on or ahead of schedule, while campaign expenses have been limited to three cents of each donor dollar. Total funding for the project has reached more than $192 million, including approximately $174 million in gifts and grants from Dallas families, foundations and companies.

Internationally renowned architects have completed the designs of the Center’s main venues, affirming that they will meet their programmatic objectives and that construction will be completed on budget.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation has recently negotiated a multi-generational contract with the City of Dallas for managing and operating the Center when construction is complete.

Flagship Corporate Alliance, the campaign’s unique corporate giving program, was conceived and is being managed by four members of the Foundations board of directors: Maribess Miller, managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Roger Nanney, vice chairman and regional managing partner of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP; Kathleen Gibson, president of Bank of America Dallas; and Roger Staubach, chairman of The Staubach Company.

The Alliance was designed to provide the means for companies of all types and sizes to support the campaign at one of three membership levels, all of which can be paid over a several-year period. At the end of the first year of the Alliance’s operation, thirteen companies have joined the project, committing gifts totaling almost $3 million and increasing the campaign’s total corporate support to in excess of $15 million.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held Thursday, November 10, 2005, in the Dallas Arts District.

Founding Family Donors, Cornerstone Donors, members of the Flagship Corporate Alliance, and other major donors were honored at the event that signaled the start of construction and celebrated Dallas’ emergence as one of the world’s important cultural cities. The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is scheduled to open in 2009.