Strange Bedfellows or Symbiosis A Deux? An Examination of "Enhancement" Deals Between Nonprofit Theatres and Commercial Producers

An enhancement funding deal occurs when a commercial producer gives money to a nonprofit organization to finance a production. This "seed money" is utilized to fund a more expansive production to provide producers with a reasonable preview of what the production could look like if it were brought to Broadway. These arrangements are becoming increasingly common due to strains of the economic recession, and have raised numerous questions about how commercial funding can distort the fundamental charitable purpose of a 501(c)(3) organization. These arrangements lie in direct contrast to the fundamental goals behind the development of the nonprofit or regional theatre movement of the 1960s, and this seismic shift has generated considerable controversy within the theatrical community. This thesis analyzes how these cross-sector alliances influence the nonprofit organizations in terms of their financial effects, the effect of commercial monies as potential goal displacement away from mission related projects, the level of artistic control subjugated by the nonprofit theatre as a result of the financial arrangement, the branding effects of "getting a show on Broadway," and the ways in which these alliances could raise private benefit issues that would jeopardize the tax-exempt status of the nonprofit organization that accepts such monies.