Finance Committee - 9/5/2018 Page 13
Mayor Donchess
Well you will get a report on the 18"", but | would say this in general, the fundraiser we have knows the Nashua
community very well. | did go the Soup Kitchen Fund Drive as well as others as well as the YMCA, and the
general approach taken by these professionals is that it is much more important to secure large gifts at the
beginning as opposed to going out, you know as much as we would like to have 100 people give $10.00 that
the way to manage a successful campaign is to secure large givers at the beginning and then move out from
there. So | think by taking a methodical, professional, proven approach, even though it takes more time, at
least in the beginning, the interviews are with people and organizations who can potentially give significant,
more than say you or | would probably be capable of. They can most successfully reach the goal.
| think part of the goal of course in addition to private sources who would contribute their own money is the new
market tax credit. We do have a consultant there; that is not a sure thing but it looks very favorable and we
have a separate consultant, this person also has some knowledge of that. We are pursuing that at the same
time. We just don’t want to tell you the results before the fundraiser is here and can kind of go through the
details with more knowledge than what we have. We don’t want to upstage her really, and let her provide you
directly the results of her work. But we think at that time there will be some recommendations as to how to
achieve some major gifts and how to most maximize our chances on the Performing Arts Center and how to
ultimately raise the amount of money we are looking for.
Anybody who wanted to give money right now can just send it to the Nashua Arts Commission and they will
hold small contributions at the present time. But the proven approach towards community fundraising, over
and over and over again, is you secure large gifts at the beginning. And those don’t come like you know, hey
could you give us you know, oh yeah sure, I'll write a check, those don’t come quickly or easy.
Alderman Laws
That makes perfect sense and again | support what is going on. The people | am hearing from are not people
looking to make donations though. They are the people who believe that this is a self-fulfilling prophesy of
electing a new Board of Aldermen, spending $15 million dollars of tax payer money and then nothing coming
out of it. That’s generally where my concern is, | understand September 18", seems like Christmas to me, |
am excited about it.
Mayor Donchess
Well Christmas in September? We will have it.
Alderman Caron
Yes thank you. | have to agree with Alderman Laws. | sat on the Board when we brought that legislation in and
that part of it was that $4 million dollars had to be in place before we would put any money down from that
bond to that facility. And believe me, | have been part of Performing Arts Centers for 30 some odd years and
so that is their concern, because the clock is ticking. Granted, you don’t want to give us all that information
until September 18", but that is the question that keeps coming up is are we going to pursue this even though
we don’t have that money. Because if we don’t have first $ 4 million dollars, are you ever going to have that
money that is going to sustain it or are we going to end up like we did before and have an issue that the City
has to carry the burden forever. And | don’t think that is what the City should be doing; they need to work in
partnership. | understand you are bringing consultants in and that’s a good thing if they are raising that money
but that is the question that | keep hearing, where is that $4 million dollars before you approve that final bond
issue. So | think it is important for you to understand that and for the public to know that people who sit in this
horseshoe are concerned as well. Thank you.
