NORTHAMPTON — It took them longer than they expected, but they made it happen, and then some.
On Monday night, the Iron Horse in Northampton celebrated the results of a monthslong effort to raise funds for its “Playing It Forward” capital campaign, which aimed to secure $350,000 — after they’d already raised about $550,000 out of $800,000 total — to pay off construction debt, build up reserve funds to help with repairs and emergencies, and support free programming and ticket initiatives. The campaign was originally supposed to end in May.
“Anyone in the fundraising business will tell you that going out and asking folks, ‘Help us retire some debt, help us pay off some loans,’ that’s not a sexy ask, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of explaining it, and folks have responded,” said Dennis Bidwell, co-chair of the Playing It Forward Campaign Committee. “They get it.”
The biggest donations that pushed the campaign over the finish line were both for $50,000. One came from a private donor; the other came from a local business as part of a partnership with the Iron Horse that is not yet public. Other donations in much smaller amounts came in throughout the weekend before a private celebration show at the venue last Monday.
“We are truly excited for this next chapter at The Iron Horse and are so grateful to all of the community members that supported both campaigns,” Caitlin Reardon, community relations coordinator, wrote in an email.
All told, the campaign raised $903,000 from more than 2,100 donors by way of direct gifts and donations added to ticket purchases.
“This couldn’t happen in many communities. There’s just no way,” said Suzanne Beck, co-chair of the Playing It Forward Campaign Committee.
“We were unsure, coming into this, whether it would resonate with people that we had to pay off debt. We were already open,” said Executive Director Chris Freeman. “But the fact is, people understood that running a music venue is a roller coaster of a business venture, and we want to make sure that it’s stable for the community and to do all of the things that we have sought out to do and that we said we would do … The community stepped up to make it happen.”
The venue officially launched its capital campaign in February with hopes of wrapping the campaign up in May. Yet when Freeman, Beck, Bidwell, and Reardon spoke to the Gazette on the morning of Thursday, June 11, the campaign was still about $25,000 short of its goal. They were going to have a private party for donors on Monday night no matter what, either to celebrate meeting the goal or to celebrate getting very close to it and encourage people to get them there.
“We’re going to be over [the goal amount] by then. I know we will be,” Freeman said. “We’ve raised $775,000, so even though $25,000 sounds like a lot, it’s a very doable amount. Nobody who supports this wants to go to a party on Monday and say, ‘We’re almost there.’”
Many of the donations were small — sometimes just a few dollars added onto a ticket purchase — but a number of donors gave amounts of $5,000 and above. The venue pays tribute to them with what they call a “gratitude wall,” which features donors’ names encircled by horseshoes in various colors, according to the size of their donation.
“This place really is a community place to everybody,” Freeman said. “There are many people who donated $5,000, $10,000, or $25,000 who come here all the time, who come here because of the kids’ shows that we have — that’s the thing that resonated with them. There are other people who donated money because they drive by on Center Street and they love seeing the fact that the Iron Horse is open … and it’s a place where they have memories [of] coming in the past and where they want their grandkids and their kids to be able to have memories right now.”
He said others were glad that the club didn’t take a merch cut from any artist, while others wanted to support nightlife in downtown Northampton and the local bands featured.
For more information about the “Playing It Forward” campaign, visit ironhorse.org/giving.
