How you can be involved

There are so many ways!

1. You can be a volunteer – helping the orchestra by providing your time, and getting a look “inside” the orchestra, at how our concerts and community outreach come together. You might…

greet a high school student musician, who’s just arrived at the Irving Arts Center to compete in our annual “concerto competition.”  He or she will be a bit nervous, and you can welcome the student and family, invite them to have something cold to drink or cookies to nibble, and make the whole experience a happy one.  The student could win a $500 scholarship and opportunity to perform with the orchestra. Every spring we need several volunteers as greeters.

… be a smiling face at our “welcome table” at Sunday afternoon concerts, where we invite audience members to leave their contact information in a basket for a drawing where they could win two free tickets to our next concert.  With their contact information, we can add them to our growing e-mail list and keep them posted about future concerts.  And your warm welcome can make a difference for those who are with us for the first time, including our “First Tickets” middle school students and families.

… join our silent auction committee, planning, approaching interesting restaurants, musical and theater groups, museums and other recreational destinations about their participation in our annual silent auction – our major fund-raising event of each season. Or simply contributing ideas, items or gift certificates to the auction.

… welcome audience members as an usher – we need at least four each concert.

… be a “host” for one of our Grace Note Awards winners at this spring event, where we recognize groups who are making a significant contribution to music and the arts in North Texas. In the past, that has included AT&T Stadium (for hosting not football but opera), NorthPark Center (for including live music, with orchestras and soloists in the Center all year long), cities – such as Irving – who have invested in arts centers like ours, etc.  It’s fun to greet them and introduce them to our conductor and simply make them welcome while they are with us, when they receive their award.

2. Or you can work with us on fund-raising, perhaps serving on the “Giving Day” committee, helping get out the word about this September effort, supported by foundations throughout north Texas. On that September day each year, every dollar that’s donated is worth more, with the “bonus” funds added by area foundations.  We’ll be planning and developing materials to let people know about the date and how to participate.  It’s a big day for NPOI!

3. To make a lasting impact, you could join us in building our endowment – the Tomorrow Fund for NPOI – at The Dallas Foundation. We’ll be developing planned giving materials and reaching out to potential donors, those who already are donors to our annual fund.  Our endowment, begun in 2011, has already grown to more than $80,000, and its earnings each season are helping the orchestra to grow.  We’ll be designing informational materials, contacting subscribers and donors to NPOI about how to make a gift to NPOI, as a part of their own estate planning.

4. You could help make our concessions booth a strong contributor to our annual budget. At a concert, people are thirsty, or need a snack, and the people who decide on what to offer and are there to help make a big difference!  We have a coordinator who brings in the beverages and snacks, but we always need welcoming helpers at the booth!

5. You could place an ad in our season programs for your company, or help us contact other advertisers during the summer who’d like to be included in our full-color season programs. Every year, these ads (available for as little as $100 for a quarter-page, or $350 for a full-page, and slightly more for covers) raise some $3,000 to help us pay for the 44-page full color programs that include program notes for concerts all season.  And it just takes a few calls to our previous advertisers and to potential new ones. Deadline for reservations and layouts is August 1.  And advertisers have perks – invitations to concerts, etc. – so many look forward to being a part of this supporting “family” of companies and colleges.

6. And if you’d like to offer some advice on the next season’s programming, or simply to be closer to what’s happening with the orchestra, you can join the Conductor’s Circle with a donation of $1,000 or more, and be among the first to know about the next season’s programming, and to discuss with our music director music you’d like to see us perform.

 

We do need your help!  And it’s more fun when you’re involved.