The Elmhurst Symphony has a Plan

On a cold Saturday morning in February of 2023, board members, musicians, staff, and volunteers of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra gathered to discuss a serious problem: The Symphony was losing money, and fast. A year later, the orchestra has seen two record-setting concerts, exceeded its annual fundraising goal nearly six months ahead of schedule, and is on target to end the year with a balanced budget.

“We’ve made excellent progress,” said Elmhurst Symphony Executive Director Gregory Hughes, “and we have a lot more to do.”

Hughes took the reins of the ESO in July 2022, spearheading the organization’s marketing, fundraising, and administrative operations. With careful study of the orchestra’s financial history, he noted the ESO had operated at a deficit in six of the prior ten fiscal years, and quickly determined the cause.

“We were spending 10-20% more than we brought in and depleting our cash reserves. The data painted a clear picture: The ESO did a great job of attracting new ticket buyers and donors, and a terrible job getting them to come back. We needed to fix our patron retention problem.”

The Symphony’s leadership began crafting a strategic plan to address patron retention and chart the organization’s course for the future. Available to read at ElmhurstSymphony.org/Strategic-Plan, the document provides a detailed roadmap to bolstering audience and donor retention, volunteer engagement, and organizational decision-making processes.

“The plan is a good start,” Hughes remarked, “and the components of it we’ve been able to execute so far are working well. Plans, though, are fragile things and we’re committed to revisiting it each year to evaluate and fine tune it.”

Among those components already in place are competitive ticket prices and reserved seating, so patrons have more control over their concert-going experience, and a plethora of new ways to thank supporters.

“A timely newsletter so our donors know how their money is being spent, a hand-signed ‘thank you’ card on a subscriber’s seat, a note or phone call from a board member — stewardship isn’t rocket science and these types of things go a long way.”

“Elmhurst Symphony patrons are savvy,” Hughes added, “and I don’t think they want us sitting back hoping and praying ticket sales and contributions come in. They want to see that we have a plan to go out and get that support. That’s exactly what we have, and it's working.”