Description of organization

The Westerville Symphony at Otterbein College is a nonprofit, charitable corporation, which functions as an educational, cultural and entertainment resource for the Central Ohio area by organizing and presenting performances of primarily symphonic music. It also provides an artistic opportunity for musicians from the area. Currently in its 20th year of performances, the Westerville Symphony is made up of 70-plus professional, semi-professional, and amateur members.

The Westerville Symphony obtains funding through a combination of corporate gifts, foundation grants, orchestra and orchestra league fundraisers, ticket sales, and individual donations. It was one of only two arts organizations in Central Ohio to finish the most recent fiscal year in the black.

In an effort to leverage its solid financial status toward the continued growth and success of the organization, the symphony is currently working to expand its programming and community outreach. Examples of this expansion include adding a performance to symphony’s annual Young People’s Concerts, thereby enabling school systems other than Westerville’s to take part, a re-design of the patron/audience tracking system, updates to the symphony’s marketing plan, as well as renewed attention to long-range planning and relationship building.

Target audience and number of people served

Many of the programs performed by the Westerville Symphony expose audiences to traditional symphonic programming. In addition to this important undertaking, though, are concerts and events that present many different types of music to a wide range of people: the orchestra continues to offer musical programs to under-served audience segments, to broaden its appeal to previously untapped groups, and to support the cause of music education and the arts in all communities.

The Westerville Symphony’s target audience varies based on the type of program being offered.

• The Cowan Hall Subscription Series draws mostly older adults (about 60 percent of the audience at those concerts is over the age of 60) and Otterbein College students.
• Each April, the symphony’s Young People’s Concerts cater specifically to fourth- and fifth-grade students (totaling around 2200) in the Westerville City Schools.
• Tunes & Tales, targeted to preschool-aged children and their families, draws nearly 800 people during a day of performances in November each year at the Westerville Public Library.
• Free outdoor concerts, such as Fourth of July and Paper Plate Pops, attract mainly families and middle-aged adults.

In all, we estimate that the Westerville Symphony reaches more than 20,000 people per year, that we are able to track.

Expected measurable results

As the Westerville Symphony continues to work to expand its programming and community outreach, we expect to see an increase in attendance at concerts, as well as a heightened public awareness of the symphony and its activities. It is part of the symphony’s mission to cultivate not only current audiences but symphony audiences of the future.

We are confident that a larger audience base will lead to a quantifiable increase in ticket sales and donations to the symphony (both today and in future years), thereby enabling the organization to expand and strengthen its current artistic programming as well as implement long-term strategic planning.

Evaluation plan

A $2,000 one-time grant from the Westerville Fund enabled the symphony to purchase high-capacity computer hardware. With that in place, the symphony has begun the process of upgrading the database used to catalog patron information as well as track attendance and donation trends. In addition, several members of the Board of Trustees who have backgrounds in marketing have been designated to evaluate, improve, and implement changes to the symphony’s marketing plan.

We anticipate that the improved database will both provide valuable (and previously unavailable) information about the Westerville Symphony’s patron base, as well as track the efforts and success of the symphony’s marketing team. The resulting data will allow for a clear evaluation of the symphony’s progress in reaching new audiences as well as serving the needs of existing patrons.