Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation Inc
A Showcase of the Past, A Stage for the Future
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We exist to rehabilitate, preserve and operate the historic Tabor Opera House for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. Our fundraising efforts support a dual mission of rehabilitating and maintaining the opera house while providing our community with diverse entertainment offerings and access to event space in a beautiful and authentic historic building. Generations of deferred neglect have left this historic building in a perilous and fragile state. In 2016, Colorado Preservation inc declared the building one of Colorado's Most Endangered Places, threatened by "demolition through neglect." The Tabor Opera House contributes to the Leadville National Historic Landmark District and is a designated National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Tabor Opera House is a historic building, a community event center, and the heart of our community, symbolizing for Leadville's residents both our storied past and a gritty, resilient community's 21st-century future.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Summer Season Performances
We offer 15 events each summer, including musical theater, comedy, ballet, opera, rock/jazz/bluegrass/soul bands, Songwriter Showcase, spoken word, and other live performance offerings
Where we work
External reviews
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Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We have a dual mission: to rehabilitate this historic building, a project estimated at $8.5 to $10 million dollars, and to operate it on behalf of the public as a community event center.
Our goals for the next 24 months include:
- Complete the $316,000 Architecture and Engineering study we funded and began in September 2018
- Raise the remaining $850,000 we need for the $1.5 million Phase 1 project, for the rehabilitation of foundations, masonry and windows on the two most damaged facades of the building to seal the building's envelope and prevent further deterioration. We have secured commitments for $650,000 of this total as of October 2018.
- Begin Phase I construction work while planning and fundraising for Phase II.
- Remediating asbestos in our furnace room (December 2018) so we can install temporary heat (Spring 2019) so we can extend our tours and performance season.
- Deliver our third (summer 2019) and fourth (summer+ 2020) seasons offering tours and diverse performances.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
As a small rural mountain town of 7,200 in the whole county, without a wealthy tax base in our city or county able to support our efforts like most organizations of our type, we are scrappy and resourceful.
For our operations, we marshal volunteers, accepting generous in-kind donations and volunteer hours: housing and food for our performers, free and discount advertising for our performances, specialized skills from our volunteers, armies of helpers for ushering, cleaning and decorating. We are managing without an executive director or other paid managerial staff for now, although we recognize acutely the need for that support.
We draw on experienced volunteer grant writers to write our many, many grant applications, and volunteers to help us with social media, fundraising letter drives and press access. Our volunteer ambassadors just helped us win a national public awareness campaign and $150,000 through Partners in Preservation.
We build alliances with other community programs.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
While proud of our achievements over the last two years, we recognize the need to strengthen our organizational capabilities. We are working on building our board to broaden our collective skill sets and expertise and create the organizational resilience and sustainability to carry us through this large and complex project.
We recognize the need for paid staff support to avoid burning out our volunteer leaders and are actively focused on fundraising to meet that need. Near-term, we are seeking funding to manage and oversee our ambitious summer schedule of 15 performances to free board time for fundraising.
We rely on expert outside contractors (technical assessments, sound/light tech for performances, book-keeping and financial statement preparation) and pro bono volunteers (legal counsel) to ensure we are managing our donors' money wisely, building a strong legal and process-based organization for the future and exercising due diligence in our decisionmaking around projects.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have delivered two successful fifteen event summer seasons to our community, offering performances and interactive historical tours, growing tour and event revenues year on year and covering our cash costs for tour guides and event support.
In the two years since we took over the rehabilitation and operation of the opera house, we have, with our partner the City of Leadville, raised commitments or cash of over $1,000,000 for those two missions: $1,082,000 for the rehabilitation (architecture and engineering project $316,000, Phase 1 $650,000, heater $95,000, asbestos $6,000 plus grant applications out for more, light and sound upgrade $15,000) and over $150,000 to support our summer season of tours and performances ($116,158 in earned income from ticket sales, and over $30,000 in in-kind donations, and private, local, small-dollar donations and contributions).
We have created a solid platform of basic processes (legal, financial, labor).
Next? Raise the money and keep going!
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Tabor Opera House Preservation Foundation Inc
Board of directorsas of 10/24/2021
Jennifer Buddenborg
City & County of Denver
Term: 2018 - 2024
Carl F Schaefer
Retired
John E Nelson
Lake County Wraparound
Jennifer L Buddenborg
City & County of Denver
Greg Decent
East West Resorts
Sara Edwards
Shout Your Abortion
Teresa Blair
Ipsen
Natalie Lord
Form+Works Design Group
Ziska Childs
Ziska Childs Design LLC
Amy Tait
Centennial Real Estate
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
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Gender identity
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Transgender Identity
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Sexual orientation
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Disability
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