Charlotte Symphony tops $50M fundraising goal. What that means for its future
The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra has surpassed its $50 million campaign fundraising goal, ensuring the stability of its endowment, the orchestra announced Wednesday.
The orchestra unveiled details of its three-year comprehensive campaign in April 2024, after having already quietly raised $41 million since 2022. As of Wednesday, the campaign exceeded its goal, raising $50.1 million — marking the largest fundraising effort in the CSO’s 93-year history.
“This is a transformative milestone,” orchestra CEO and President David Fisk said in a statement. “We can now invest more deeply in the artistic and community-centered work that defines us.”
The money will provide support for long-term sustainability as well as near-term investment in artistic and community priorities under the orchestra’s music director Kwamé Ryan.
Fisk told The Charlotte Observer that exceeding the goal sends an “impressive signal to the rest of the country that Charlotte cares about the arts and culture.”
How the CSO exceeded its campaign goal
In late 2022, Brian Moynihan and Hugh McColl, the current and former CEOs of Bank of America, became honorary co-chairs and helped launch the capital drive. The C.D. Spangler Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, former Foundation for the Carolinas leader Michael Marsicano, and many others helped support the effort, Phillips told the Observer.
“This campaign brought our community leaders together to support a vital institution whose legacy — and future — are deeply tied to the success of our city,” McColl said in a statement.
Fundraising leaders looked at endowment for peer orchestras, finding Charlotte lagged behind peers with less than 5% of its annual budget coming from income off of its endowment. Others cities drew from 10% in Fort Worth, Texas, to 23% in Omaha, Nebraska.
The comprehensive campaign success was crucial for the Charlotte Symphony, Fisk said, as it was dealing with the loss of Thrive funding from the Foundation for the Carolinas; recovering from the pandemic; and experiencing year-over-year decreases in endowment funds.
“The importance of having a large endowment is that it enables you not to rely upon sources of money which might come and go,” Fisk told the Observer. “Any institution like us, whether it’s a university or a museum or art gallery or symphony, needs to have its own source of abundant reserves to not be at the mercy of the shifting tides of current funding opportunities.”
Phillips told the Observer that leaders and the orchestra’s donors recognize that the orchestra is important from its classical component to its school music programs and outreach performances to keep the Charlotte community strong.
“When they recognized what the symphony does in the community, they wanted to be a part of it,” Phillips said. “They said this is something that matters.”
How the CSO campaign fund works
Here’s how the campaign funding will be directed:
▪ $40 million towards the endowment, increasing long-term sustainability and bringing the symphony’s endowment closer to peer orchestras in similar-sized cities. With an annual operating budget of $13 million, the orchestra will draw an average of 4.5% annually from the endowment fund — representing about 15% of the overall operating budget and permanently offsetting the loss of the Thrive Fund Initiative.
Before the latest fundraising campaign began, the orchestra’s endowment stood at about $13.5 million. With the influx of funds, the endowment grows to $53.5 million.
▪ $10.1 million to provide operating support over the next five years during this transition period to fund programs, expand access and invest in artistic innovation — including the CSO Roadshow, immersive concert formats, and education and community engagement initiatives. This will allow time for the endowment to grow and start producing sustainable annual drawdowns.
Even as the campaign stabilizes the orchestra’s financial foundation, the organization said that continued growth in annual support remains essential to fueling its work.
More about the Charlotte Symphony
The Charlotte Symphony is the oldest continuously operating symphony orchestra in the Carolinas.
Each season, the orchestra presents over 150 concerts in more than 30 venues across the region. The orchestra outreach includes education with public schools; performances in hospitals; and performing with Opera Carolina, Charlotte Ballet and Charlotte Master Chorale.
In 2023, the orchestra began holding free concerts in various Charlotte neighborhoods through its CSO Roadshow mobile stage.
The endowment doesn’t just preserve the symphony but is building its future, Fisk told the Observer.
“Hopefully it will lead to people becoming more aware of what it is that we do, and the programs that we have available for families and for kids as well as for adults, to encourage greater participation,” Fisk said. “We’re just very humbled that folks have felt that this has been the symphony’s time to be the beneficiaries of such extraordinary philanthropy and generosity.”
More arts coverage
Want to see more stories like this? Sign up here for our free, award-winning “Inside Charlotte Arts” newsletter: charlotteobserver.com/newsletters. And you can join our Facebook group, “Inside Charlotte Arts,” by going here: facebook.com/groups/insidecharlottearts.
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Charlotte Symphony tops $50M fundraising goal. What that means for its future."