CSO tunes up for melodious future

After several years of financial dissonance, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra is heading into a new season on a high note.

Thanks in large part to a fundraising campaign launched last fall, the organization expects to finish its fiscal year, which ends June 30, in the black.

Symphony officials say the group also has improved its strategic planning efforts and is working on long-range plans that will help it maintain more solid financial footing in the future.

"I do not expect miracles, but I am optimistic," CSO's board president, Leo Fishman, said Thursday. "I think we're going to be here for a long time."

The symphony faced an uncertain future last fall, when supporters revealed that accumulated financial losses could put the organization out of commission. Those losses occurred despite a 2003 agreement by the group's 46 musicians, in an effort to stem the tide of red ink, to accept an 18 percent pay cut for three years. Their salaries have since been restored to their previous levels.

Battling to keep the symphony's doors open, CSO officials kicked off a fundraising drive last November to raise $500,000 in new money. The group expects to exceed that goal by the end of this month.

Fishman credited a host of local businesses and individual supporters for making generous, often unsolicited, contributions to the campaign. Some businesses even made multiyear commitments.

The nonprofit Charleston Symphony Orchestra League also raised a large chunk of funds, he said.

"Community involvement has been essential to stabilize and strengthen the CSO," Fishman wrote in a recent letter to symphony patrons and supporters.

The group also has access to an untapped line of credit, he said Thursday.

Besides shoring up the CSO's finances, symphony officials have been working on improving the group's long-range planning efforts and tightening up its operations and management. In September, the group formed a committee made up of CSO board members and musicians to work on strategic and financial planning initiatives.

Also, through a grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the group hired an arts management and consulting firm, AMS Planning and Research, to work with the committee. Among their accomplishments was crafting a five-year financial plan.

"We are using it to guide our every decision now," said board member Ted Legasey, the group's vice president of finance.

The CSO also is looking for ways to better organize fund-raising efforts going forward.

Although about 60 percent of the nonprofit's revenue typically comes from contributions and grants, CSO's eight-person staff has only sporadically included a worker dedicated to raising funds. Also, the group has acknowledged that it largely neglected to solicit money from local corporations in the past.

Adding to the CSO's optimism is the prospect of hiring a new executive director. The position has been vacant since last August, when former director Sandy Ferencz resigned. An executive search firm has come up with four strong candidates. The CSO hopes to make a decision by the end of July, Fishman said.

For all of the accomplishments in recent months, CSO officials said the group still has plenty of work ahead.

"This is by no means an auto-pilot operation," Legasey said. "We must focus on sustaining this momentum and building the CSO enterprise into a top-performing organization."

The symphony's new season starts in September.

Reach Caroline Fossi at cfossi@postandcourier.com or 937-5524.