As 2018 gets closer and closer to a close, we have two final ways that you can help us make our Annual Campaign goal. The first is perhaps the easiest for most folks, and is a way to get involved no matter how near or far you are from us or no matter the size of the gift you want to make.
This year for #GivingTuesday we have set a goal to fundraise $6,000 from the general public. These dollars will be matched 1 to 1 thanks to a generous grant from the Gobioff Foundation. That means your gift of even $5 becomes $10, $50 becomes $100 and so on. We are currently 63% to our 2018 goal and a successful #GivingTuesday would lift us to 81% with one month left to go in the year.
For 20 years now Jobsite has been an essential part of the Tampa Bay area’s arts and culture scene. Consider these fast facts:
- We bring over 15,000 people into downtown Tampa every year with an overall economic impact of almost $750,000.
- We hire only local professional artists and 85 cents of every dollar spent on a ticket goes back into the pocket of those artists. That money stays here in the community making our economy stronger for everyone.
- In 2018 we hired almost 60 regional artists of every imaginable discipline: actors, directors, designers, stage managers, technicians, musicians, composers, choreographers and so on.
- Our education programs currently reach over 2,500 students annually, and this figure continues to grow every year. We not only bring middle and high schoolers into our theater for weekday field trips of professionally-produced versions of literary greats (in 2018 we offered Shakespeare’s The Tempest and George Orwell’s 1984) but we also send teaching artists into the schools before and after each visit to enrich the experience and extend into their curriculum.
Please join us on Tue., Nov. 27, for #GivingTuesday. You may make an online contribution any time during that day through this portal and help us get closer to our goal. You can also help by sharing our posts on social media or in person to friends and colleagues.
If you are not aware of all that we do both on and off stage, we invite you to take a brief look at our 20th Anniversary Season, our education and outreach programs, our accomplishments, read more on who we are, and take a look below at a sampling of the endorsements our work has inspired. We also invite you to join us on Sat., Dec. 1, at our Jobsite Rocks! 20th Birthday Bash — the second way you can help us make our 2018 Annual Campaign goal that I mentioned above.
From Judy Lisi, Straz Center President:
Jobsite Theater has been the resident theater company at the Straz Center for the last 14 seasons … the deeper accomplishments that we see in Jobsite Theater underscore their vision, their professionalism and their ability to develop their company and serve their community … Jobsite Theater fills and exceeds our need for challenging professional theater at the Straz Center, and they have established themselves as a dominant member of Tampa Bay’s theater landscape. We are very proud of our collaboration with The Jobsite Theater and hope that you will join us in supporting this excellent company.
From one of the schools we service every year, St. Peter Claver:
We serve a population of inner city children, most below poverty level and in high risk crime areas. The generous donation of tickets to our drama students was awe inspiring. Most had never seen a play ever, let alone Shakespeare …My students were engaged and wanted to learn more about the performing arts and felt validated …On behalf of myself, students, faculty and staff, we applaud all your educational outreach efforts. Our students have a new found love for theatre. I am encouraged about our future collaboration in the coming year with another Shakespeare masterpiece,
From Sickles High School, another partner who creates our promotional images and videos in addition to our standard education outreach:
This real-life experience is invaluable to my TV Production students. The kids, when they see their work in the actual press, get a sense of accomplishment that really can’t be recreated inside the classroom. lt’s an opportunity that I can’t replace ..ln addition to the relationship that Jobsite Theater maintains with TV Production, there is also a relationship between my AP Literature and Composition students and the theater …They were very engaged with the play and the process used to bring it to the stage. These opportunities created by Jobsite Theater consistently provide students with access to the arts in a contemporary, organic, real way that I couldn’t replace otherwise. After 23 years of teaching, Jobsite Theater is providing me with access to the arts that would otherwise be closed to me. I am very grateful for the relationships that we have.
