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A Maestro
of a Gift
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The Saint
Louis Symphony Orchestra receives national record-setting $40 million
challenge grant.
By Liese Hutchison
The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) recently received the
largest gift in its 121-year history—a $40 million challenge grant
from the Jack Taylor family. Taylor is the founder and chairman
of St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car, North America’s largest
car rental company.
The challenge grant has already spurred donations since its announcement
in December—$6.2 million to date. “It’s important to point out that
most of these contributions were unsolicited,” says Virginia Weldon,
SLSO chair. The orchestra has received gifts in numerous dollar
amounts, including a $2 million pledge from Edward Jones. “They
range from $10 to $2 million, from a tenor in a church choir, from
several members of the orchestra and from a CEO in a major St. Louis
corporation. As we and the Taylors had hoped, this extraordinary
gift is a call to action for the community, a platform for success,
but it is only the beginning of the effort to build sufficient financial
resources, including the endowment, for the SLSO.”
The Taylors’ gift to America’s second-oldest symphony orchestra—which
is consistently ranked among the top five orchestras in the nation—is
the largest single personal contribution ever made to an American
orchestra for operations and endowment. It is also believed to be
the largest individual gift to a St. Louis cultural institution
in the region’s history.
Andrew C. Taylor, president and CEO of Enterprise, speaking on behalf
of his father and the entire Taylor family, said, “Our orchestra
is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best. My family, which
has called St. Louis home since the 1800s, firmly believes we should
do what we can to preserve and enhance a civic jewel that does so
much to define St. Louis as a wonderful city in which to live and
work. Our gift to the symphony is a gift to the St. Louis region.”
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Dutchman Hans Vonk has been the music director and
conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
for four-plus years.
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The $40 million challenge grant is structured with $5 million allocated
to operating expenses and the remaining $35 million for increasing
the Symphony’s endowment, which is currently about $23 million.
The challenge grant will be in effect over a four-year period, with
at least a one-for-one matching requirement. Including the Taylor
family’s gift, the challenge grant when matched is anticipated to
raise between $80 and $100 million, with at least $70 million added
to the endowment and $10 million for immediate operating needs.
That will begin to bring the orchestra’s endowment in line with
other major symphonies across the country. Orchestras in cities
such as Minneapolis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh all have endowments
of more than $100 million.
“This extraordinary gift from Jack Taylor and his family will help
launch a new era for the symphony and provide a major impetus to
get the organization back on solid financial footing,” Weldon notes.
“It will also help preserve the symphony’s world-class stature and
allow us to continue our national model community outreach programs
and symphony music school, through which thousands of children and
adults in the St. Louis area are exposed to the excellence of the
symphony and its gifted musicians.”
In addition to the Taylor family’s gift, the symphony received another
major challenge grant during the past year—$2.5 million from the
Ford Foundation. The purpose of this grant is to establish a major
endowed fund for its Community Partnerships Program. This program
exposes thousands of children and adults in the region to the symphony
and its musicians.
The symphony recently put into place the leadership for its campaign
to meet the Taylor family and Ford Foundation challenges with aspirations
for engaging philanthropic responses throughout the region’s small-
and mid-cap business community. Andy Taylor will serve as general
chairman of the campaign with his father Jack and William R. Orthwein,
Jr., serving as the honorary chairmen.
For more information, e-mail to karinm@slso.org
Liese L. Hutchison is an assistant professor in the department of
communication at Saint Louis University and a free-lance writer.
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