Press release: Private fundraising for Greensboro performing arts center exceeds $35 million goal

The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro distributed a press release this afternoon announcing that the private fundraising goal for a downtown performing arts center has been hit as of today's deadline. Below is the text from the majority of the press release (excluding the long list of individual private donors):

Private donations totaling an unprecedented $35.4 million-plus have been pledged to the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts, thus surpassing a community challenge by the center’s namesake, The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro announced today.

The total raised as of today is $35,448,920.

“We are most appreciative of the unprecedented level of support for this critical project for our community,” said Kathy Manning, who is leading the private fundraising effort. “Time and again, individuals, families, foundations and businesses demonstrated their generosity to ensure we build the state-of-the-art facility that will help transform Greensboro. With this extraordinary show of support by the private sector, we are thrilled to move on to the next step – working with the city to get the performing arts center built.”

Fundraisers exceeded a $35-million community challenge made by Steven B. Tanger, president, chief executive officer and a director of Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. On Sept. 9, shortly after fundraisers had pushed past $20 million in pledges, Tanger announced his own $7.5-million challenge pledge, contingent on fundraisers collecting a total of $35 million in private support.

Among the major gifts committed since Sept. 9 include:

  • VF Corporation: $1 million
  • Lincoln Financial Group: $500,000
  • Bank of North Carolina: $125,000

“I am very pleased that our community has dug deeply and generously to help us achieve my challenge goal of raising $35 million,” Tanger said. “This is an astonishing accomplishment, for which I congratulate the fundraising volunteers. Their diligent work, and the generosity of all of our donors, is making possible a watershed moment in the history of Greensboro. I am filled with gratitude and excited to see this project break ground in the coming months!”

The success of the private fundraising efforts has resulted in the biggest private-public partnership in Greensboro’s history. “It’s awe-inspiring to see the $35 million goal achieved,” Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan said. “We’re very appreciative of the residents and business leaders in Greensboro who have invested in this important project for our downtown.”

Ground is expected to be broken for the center next fall, with an anticipated opening in 2016. It will be located on land bordered by North Elm and East Lindsay streets and Summit Avenue.

1 comment:

Billy Jones said...

The $35 Million in private funding raised by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro will be their own undoing when Greensboro's poor see the GPAC start to rise. They cannot justify monuments to the wealthy while over 20% of the population of Greensboro lives in poverty and it will not be tolerated.