True Colors Theatre Company

Leading with Artistic Excellence - ensure the future of Black storytelling by commissioning and developing new work by playwrights representing the diversity of people of African descent. For the Next Narrative Monologue Competition, commission 150 monologues from 50 playwrights by 2023. For New Pages, commission and develop three plays by mid-career Black Southern artists.

Inspiring Individual Donors with Programming - individual giving is critical to arts organizational sustainability. White arts institutions typically receive 50 - 90% of their contributed income from individuals, while Black arts institutions receive 6 - 20%, making Black arts institutions reliant on corporations, foundations, and government support, which is inconstant relative to individuals. The strategic plan calls for $100,000 in new gifts from major donors by 2026.

Informing Marketing with Data and Insights - identify, track and audience journeys using primary and secondary data across all True Colors audiences (mainstage patrons, community event attendees, education participants and donors); increase the size of the email distribution list from 14,886 to 25,000 addresses over the next three years.

Leading with Artistic Excellence - Next Narrative, an umbrella trademark, encompasses several commissioned-focused programs: New Pages, focusing on mid-career Southern playwrights; The Drinking Gourd, a cohort-based
program that co-develops new work across Black theatres; a micro-commissioning program for
multidisciplinary emerging artists, and The Next Narrative Monologue Competition for high school students.

Inspiring Individual Donors with Programming - actively cultivate new donors from among community event attendees and education participants; retain current donors and increase giving levels; increase focus on stewardship

Informing Marketing with Data and Insights - Employ analysis tools to understand how or whether attendees at our virtual and in-person community events are different from production patrons, and to develop personas personas and insights that will enable True Colors to segment messaging content and delivery to drive ticket sales, donations and program participation. Improved content will support the strategic plan goal of increasing the size of the email distribution list from 14,886 to 25,000 addresses over the next three years.

PatronManager CRM - combines ticketing data with donor information, allowing True Colors to link purchase and donation behavior and analyze/act on insights.

Revamped Development team - Annual Fund Manager focused on donor retention, increased giving levels and stewardship; Development Director focused on corporate sponsorships; contracted grant writer for foundation research

Marketing - Marketing Director role expanded to include communications; new Social Media & Content Manager role added to drive presence and awareness informed by data analytics, university relationship that provides access to analytics tools and support for extracting insights; website/SEO conttractor to maximize web traffic and engagement

Community Engagement - Connectivity Director role created to build and sustain lasting relationships with community partners, expanding True Colors' network and creating new audiences for the work

True Colors implemented PatronManager as its combined ticketing and CRM in 2021, which enabled the company to create and track patron and donor journeys in a single system. The new capability allows the company to identify, segment and target audiences, and to measure progress against metrics including donor retention, conversion rates, new patrons, new donors and more.