The PlayGround 25K Challenge… Help Us Cross the Finish Line!
Over the past year, nearly two-dozen donors helped raise $200,000 toward PlayGround’s 25th Anniversary Campaign, designed to help secure PlayGround’s future and build a more equitable theatre for all. With an ambitious $250,000 goal, the campaign will increase investment in three timely efforts: artist compensation, artistic initiatives, and arts facilities. But with the 25th Anniversary wrapping up last fall and PlayGround and our donor community equally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, PlayGround found itself still $50,000 short of its goal. That may be about to change as long-time supporter Negley Flinn Charitable Foundation, lead contributor of the Potrero Stage Renovation Campaign, recently pledged a $25,000 challenge grant, agreeing to match 100 gifts of $250 to help PlayGround make it over the finish line. As of today (3/22), we’ve already raised more than $15,000 toward the $25,000 Challenge. Make your gift today and help us meet the 25K Challenge by May 1.
CONTRIBUTE TO THE 25K CHALLENGE
The Artist Compensation Fund will increase our investment in the core artists (playwrights, directors, actors and designers) who make our work possible, while the Artistic Initiative Fund will create new artistic opportunities for these artists, through programs such as the Innovator Incubator, Solo Fest, Producing Fellowships, and the recently-announced PlayGround-NY expansion. Lastly, the Arts Facilities Fund will secure PlayGround’s current facilities while also helping develop future spaces, such as the much-anticipated pop-up venue, “Potrero Stage Too,” planned for a July-2022 launch.
Founded in 1994 by Jim Kleinmann, Brighde Mullins and Denise Shama, PlayGround has grown into a leading playwright incubator and theatre community hub, with a deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, helping to uplift and center artists from historically underrepresented communities. Over the past 27 years, PlayGround has supported more than 200 early-career playwrights, developing and staging over 950 of their original short plays through PlayGround’s signature programs, Monday Night PlayGround and the PlayGround Festival of New Works. PlayGround has also commissioned 85 new full-length plays by 55 of these writers through its Commissioning Initiative and has directly facilitated the premiere of 30 of those works through its innovative New Play Production Fund. In 2017, PlayGround launched its state-of-the-art performance venue, Potrero Stage: PlayGround Center for New Plays, followed shortly after by an expansion of presented and produced programming, including the PlayGround Solo Performance Festival and, most recently, the PlayGround Innovator Incubator.
For more information or to donate to our 25K Challenge Campaign, visit https://playground-sf.org/contribute. To contribute by phone, call us directly at (415) 992-6677 x101. PlayGround is a California nonprofit corporation (Federal ID 94-3336399) and all contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.