Arizona Opera meets challenge in '50 for 500' campaign

For the third year in a row, Arizona Opera has successfully met the challenge of raising a lot of money in a little time.

First it was the Million Dollar May — back-to-back campaigns in 2013 and ’14 to raise $1 million each year between May and June.

This year, it added $500,000 to the pot, succeeding in raising $400,000 in pledges to match a $100,000 “50 for 500” campaign challenge. An anonymous Tucson donor pledged $100,000 to the company if it could get $400,000 in donations with gifts from all 50 states before June 30.

The company actually exceeded the goal by $12,337, said Ryan Taylor, Arizona Opera’s general director.

“We’re excited,” Taylor said Wednesday, half kidding when he added, “We’re terrified of having to keep that up. We have had more support this year than in any time in the organization’s history.”

Since Taylor took the helm of the financially strapped company in spring 2013, Arizona Opera has eliminated all its decade-old, long-term debt, boosted in large part when it signed one of its biggest creditors, CopperPoint Mutual Insurance Co., to a four-year season sponsorship deal last year. The agreement eliminated the company’s $1.6 million revolving line of credit with CopperPoint, formerly SCF Arizona, that the company had owed since 2007.

The deal with CopperPoint runs through the 2017-18 season.

Arizona Opera reported that it received donations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also is racing toward the finish line of what was to be a five-year, $5 million campaign to help it mount regionally significant works, including the season-opening production of Emmerich Kálmán’s “Arizona Lady.” The performance, the U.S. premiere, opens at Tucson Music Hall Oct. 10 and 11 before moving on to Phoenix the following weekend.

Taylor said Arizona Opera launched its “Arizona Bold” campaign last September with the goal of raising $5 million over the next four years. It has already raised $3.1 million.

He said his goal is to raise the remaining $1.9 million over the 2015-16 season.

“We experienced such rapid growth in the last two years. When I started, we had 900 donors; last year we had 1,727,” he said. “We got 39 more (donors) this year, and I think that’s positive. It is our best. We are building a community, and we have broad-based support from across the country.”