Announcing a Record-Setting $60 Million Gift to a Performing Arts Organization

The 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 Music Center, which will introduce the first concert hall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, leaders faced a singular communications challenge: how to announce a landmark gift in a way that honored the donor’s wishes, unified donors, patrons, staff, musicians and the community around a shared vision, and mad campaign success feel inevitable. They needed a partner who could manage the complexity of the moment.

Our 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 public announcement. It required a carefully sequenced communications plan that built internal alignment first, managed media access with precision 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 also allowed the people closest to the Orchestra’s mission the opportunity to hear the news first, process it personally and become advocates rather than bystanders. Six musicians were selected to represent the full breadth of the organization and prepared remarks and a symbolic rose presentation for the public program, turning the announcement into an emotionally compelling moment of celebration.

We coordinated an embargoed outreach strategy with the arts writer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, facilitating an advance interview with President & CEO Joseph McKenna to provide additional context.

An email was distributed to a list of 40,000+ Orchestra subscribers and posted across social platforms on the evening of the announcement, and the embargo later lifted to align with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s print deadline. Additional media interview opportunities with McKenna and Guerrero were coordinated throughout the following days to extend earned media reach.

Our Impact

• Successfully executed a multi-phase announcement of a $60 million gift – one of the largest gifts to any orchestra nationwide and a record-setting philanthropic investment for a performing arts organization in Florida.
• Secured 16 stories in local and national media with a potential reach of 7.6 million, including embargoed coverage in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, with a front-page story appearing in its print edition the morning immediately following the public reveal.
• Leveraged existing season reveal events to create an event-like experience that aligned musicians, educators, staff and youth orchestra participants around the Music Center vision prior to the public announcement, strengthening organizational unity at a pivotal moment.
• Positioned the gift as a catalyst for future philanthropy, with messaging designed to inspire broader community investment in the Music Center project

Results