In a Word... Danielle A. Caddell on fundraising

Promoting The Cause

by Estelle Rosen

Danielle A. Caddell is the Artistic Director of Beyond the Mountain Productions and is currently the Production Manager for Tidbits from Talk, Music from Mackerel.

CHARPO: Fundraising has many aspects to it including what actual good the fundraising provides, and how does one promote the cause without looking like they're promoting themselves? 

CADDELL:  The great thing about working with the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation is that they often tell us exactly where the money goes. For instance the money we raised our first year with a performance of Paul Van Dyck's Paradise Lost went towards the music therapy department at the hospital. 

I've worked with other charities as well and they will all tell you every little bit counts, we may not be able to raise as much as big companies and telethons do, but every penny helps.  I hope more and more theatre companies in the future will start to work with charities even with something as simple as having a table next to your box office with a charity representative to collect spare change.

It can be hard sometimes to not look like you're promoting your own company or production so we try to make it very clear in all e-mails and in our press release that 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Children's Hospital. 

@estellemontreal

We hope in future most people will come to see that Beyond the Mountain itself isn't about promoting just a few shows but really we look to promote the Montreal theatre community as a whole. We're founded on the very idea that when given the opportunity to do some good we must take it and do the best we can to help, whether its helping Montreal artists take their work aboard or helping to raise funds for a children's Hospital.

Beyond the Mountain itself is founded on the very idea that when given the opportunity to do some good we must take it and do the best we can to help, whether it's helping Montreal artists take their work abroad or helping to raise funds for a children's hospital.

The Beyond the Mountain website