Opera Europa's Fundraising Forum in Barcelona offered the most advanced discourse on fundraising in European opera houses that I have witnessed to date. Since the 2019 Milan Forum, the conversation has moved from the perceived need to fundraise to the ins and outs of actually doing it.
Many opera companies reported that the pandemic provided an important impetus to advance their work: individual donors came forward to help sustain operations during the shutdowns. This was evident among our Spanish hosts at the Liceo in Barcelona, as well as in Britain, Germany and the rest of continental Europe. The opportunity now is to maintain and grow individual giving programmes, while continuing to encourage corporate sponsorships.
The Forum's secondary theme of environmental sustainability also helped focus the discourse on specific fundraising goals. The houses collaborated by sharing strategies and approaches. Coming from the United States, where we are far behind in environmental activism, the initiatives I met across Europe were impressive and inspiring.
The keynote presentation by Hanna Berthaut of international branding firm Landor & Fitch, delivered through Opera Europa's collaboration with FEDORA as part of Next Stage capacity building, was particularly powerful in demonstrating the market power of embracing sustainability as a core value. The importance of organisational values - including, but not limited to, commitment to sustainability - was echoed in presentation after presentation throughout the Forum.
In my own contribution to a panel on brand value and social responsibility, I shared the ways in which US opera companies are beginning to embrace values-based fundraising, codified in a movement called Community-Centric Fundraising (www.operaamerica.org/CCF).
It was a great pleasure to be able to share some of the latest thinking on fundraising from the United States. While Europe may be behind us on the fundraising journey, I hope I was able to provide some ideas to guide European houses as they continue to move forward in their efforts.
Dan Cooperman
Director of Advocacy, OPERA America
