Community Spotlight: The Cincinnati Ballet

My non-profit career with started and ended with social service-based organizations. But my first exposure to the not-for-profit sector began with the Cincinnati Ballet. As the son of a very proud, dedicated, and accomplished Board Member of the Cincinnati Ballet, I went to a lot of shows with my Laura Brunner growing up. It was a special way for us to spend time together, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t salty every time a show overlapped with a Cincinnati Bengals game.

Fast forward 20+ years later, I recently had the privilege to tour their state-of-the-art facility with Deborah Brant and learn about their community engagement and educational programs. One theme that ran through our conversation was the pride that the organization has in Cincinnati and how accessible they make their facility and ballet itself to different groups of people. It did not expect to see equipment to help people with different abilities experience this art form, or to learn how many scholarships they provide, or even for the building to be so full during school hours.

Costs across every industry are profound, however I learned that a single show’s production costs this year will be 24% higher than when the show was performed in 2020. But the Ballet continues to bring world-renowned productions like the Great Gatsby to Cincinnati, develop a new series for young families, as well as create a new position to deepen their community engagement programming.

These investments to expand the Ballet’s impact moving forward are remarkable and a great example of building credibility with dedicated philanthropists. Thank you for being an incredible partner and provider to Cincinnati, see you at the Nutcracker this year!