One Step Forward, Two Steps Back- The Dance of the Nonprofit World

This season, 3GT has been focusing on reconnecting with our previous patrons as well as building community with those currently in our cohort and in our audience. It truly has been a celebration of “Where We Are”! The fact that we surpassed our fundraising goal was extra special in a time when there is so much economic uncertainty in the theater world.

Unfortunately, we are also affected by that uncertainty. As well as we did with individual donations this year, the other source of vital funds is grants. Over the last couple of months, we are facing a new challenge of not obtaining some of the grants we received in the past. There are a myriad of reasons for this, one being that the emergency finances from 2020 are no longer available and there have been no additional resources made by government entities to further fund struggling theater companies who have new expenses from the last four years. There are more theater companies applying for the available grants, increasing the competition for these limited funds. 3GT has already taken steps in streamlining our costs, analyzing our expenses, and making sure we maintain our resources while still fairly compensating our artists and collaborators. 

It is not all bad news: 3GT has a remarkable team and we are taking active steps to continue supporting our playwrights as we navigate a financially fragile society- especially in the Bay Area where costs continue to increase! We are now committed more than ever to find community partners and share resources among members of our community to maintain our level of excellence in ensuring that women+’s work is seen onstage where it belongs.

In the meantime, we are asking for your support. I have increased our GoFundMe goal to $60K so that we can ensure we have enough for booking and pre-productions costs for our 2025 New Works Festival. We know this is not the first time we are asking and we appreciate so much the generosity of everyone who has given. We have been looking forward to our New Works Festival and have already started the pre-planning process, but with fewer funds than we anticipated, we are determined to close this finance gap rather than cancel the festival. If you can give to us either through our GoFundMe or Paypal Giving, it will help us secure booking a venue for our New Works Festival and give women+ playwrights the opportunity to show their work onstage in front of an even broader audience than in our Reading Series. 

Please help us close this season with a donation that will propel our next one!

With Gratitude,

Tanya Nancy Telson, Communications Director, 3Girls Theatre