A sharp decline in corporate donations is forcing the popular City Park Jazz series to dip into its emergency funds and threatening the series’ existence beyond 2011.
The free, 10-week concert series, which runs every Sunday between June 5 and Aug. 8, is hoping a last-minute plea will result in sturdier financial footing going into its 25th. season.
“It’s pretty dire this year,” said president Chris Zacher, who assumed leadership of the nonprofit this year after serving last year as vice president and the previous two as treasurer. “We’ve just signed up Deep Rock Water as our presenting sponsor, but we’re having a hard time getting corporate donations and individual concert sponsors, T-shirt sponsors and the band-shell sponsor.”
The $15,000 that Deep Rock paid for its presenting sponsorship still leaves a huge hole for the concert series, which Zacher said will cost about $70,000 to produce this year — only $30,000 of which has been raised. That means City Park Jazz needs an additional $40,000 in the next few weeks, or it will be forced to drain its reserve funds.
The last time it raided those funds was in 2009, when it needed an extra $15,000 to continue programming.
Grants from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District and the Denver Foundation were down this year because of decreased tax revenue — nearly 20 percent less than last year — although Zacher pointed to a bright spot amid the lingering economic uncertainty.
“What’s really helped us is our attendance has risen exponentially over the past three years,” he said, conscious of the fact that a dry donation climate can also mean a rich turnout for free events. “We used to do 1,000 to 2,000 people per week, but every year it’s been doubling. Last year we averaged around 7,000 concertgoers per week, and our last few shows were all 10,000-plus.”
Donations at concerts were up 100 percent last year over 2009, which helped offset shortfalls.
Increased attendance also translates to increased exposure for corporate sponsors, Zacher noted, which is why he has reached out to the Downtown Denver Partnership and other organizations in recent days to get the word out.
“We have a little over a month before the first show, and we’re releasing our marketing materials in three weeks, so we’re trying to do a big push between now and then so we can include all our sponsors in them.”
Visit to donate or view the full schedule for 2011.
John Wenzel, The Denver Post
