We’ve been asked by several people why ATP was not chosen to participate in the Whitefish Community Foundation’s Great Fish Community Challenge (GFCC). We hope to answer that question as best we can.
The GFCC is an amazing, community-wide fundraising campaign that allows area nonprofits to use its collective awareness to raise much-needed programmatic and operational funds. We have been fortunate to participate in the GFCC in the past, oftentimes ranking toward the top of its “nonprofit leaderboard” for number of donors engaged as well as total funds raised. ATP also holds its Permanent Endowment Fund of nearly $700,000 at the Community Foundation.
Last year, ATP’s application to participate in the GFCC was rejected with the following note:
We have continuing concerns regarding ATP governance and leadership. The most alarming issue is the continued debt on the balance sheet and the lack of sustainability of the organization. These issues make it difficult for Whitefish Community Foundation to invest in Alpine Theatre Project and remain accountable to our donors.
In response, ATP began overhauling its operations and administration in an effort to agressively retire its debt and put it on more sustainable ground, including:
Adjusting its programming schedule to smooth out cash-flow issues
Reducing staff costs
Rebuilding and enlarging its Board of Directors
Retiring over 30% of its existing debt and refinancing the rest to be paid down more aggressively
These have all been extremely positive changes, putting ATP on better footing than it had been in over a decade. Unfortuntately, ATP’s 2023 GFCC application was met with the following response:
Thank you for applying to participate in the Great Fish Community Challenge. After careful consideration of your application, I regret to inform you that Alpine Theatre Project was not accepted to participate in this year’s campaign.
Per the Organization Financial Information section of the 2023 Great Fish Community Challenge application, applicants must establish the financial health and sustainability of their organization as a whole. While the financial health of Alpine Theatre Project is improving, Whitefish Community Foundation Board of Directors determined that more progress needs to be made to achieve financial stability before we can engage Alpine Theatre Project in our grant programs.
We were shocked and saddened to receive this news, as (1) we have worked extremely hard to strenghten the organization’s sustainability, and (2) this cut us off from the largest fundraising campaign of the year, making the former doubly difficult to acheive.
Being rejected from this campaign has resulted in a fundraising shortfall of about $160,000 over the past two years. ATP will continue its trajectory of organizational improvements, and, hopefully, will be accepted to participate in the GFCC in the future.
Until then, however, the work continues - as does the need.