Houston Ballet’s Post

Full disclosure. When the creative brief first landed on my desk to mark a milestone story for a legal brand I inwardly groaned. Twice. 🙈 Who actually cares about brand heritage? Isn’t it just self-indulgent navel gazing? A vainglorious biopic of what makes us so great? 🤮 And since when did any law firm have an appetite for edgy brand storytelling? We’ve all been bored into a catatonic state by talking head videos about impenetrably dry subject matter. A great cure for insomnia, but to say law is a vibrant and disruptive category, would be like saying the last slice of forgotten Hovis at the bottom of the bread bin is actually quite tasty when you get your teeth into it. 🍞 Then we cracked the brief wide open. Who cares about brand heritage? Your customers do. It proves that you’re trusted, dedicated, credible, established in your field. How do we avoid hubris? We humbly acknowledge that there’s no shortcut to excellence. It takes years to flourish. We have put in tens of thousands of hours of legal practice for our clients. So we understand what it takes to be devoted to your craft. That’s why we celebrated these exceptional people who have perfected theirs. 💪 We never rest on our laurels. Mastery has to be earned. So we continue to learn, grow and rise to new challenges so we can aspire to excellence for our clients. Concert pianist, ballet dancer, chef or artist. Practice makes perfect. Thanks to my hardworking creative partners at Mode Creative, for their brilliantly imaginative visual storytelling, Danny Evans who is an exceptionally gifted photographer and consummate perfectionist, and my visionary and brave clients Meryl Laisney and Hannah Reed at Baker & Partners.

San Francisco Ballet Receives Historic $60 Million Gift for New Works and Artistic Innovation - San Francisco Ballet (SF Ballet) has received a landmark $60 million donation, the largest in its history and one of the largest ever given to an American ballet company. - The gift aims to support SF Ballet's vision of revolutionizing ballet by enabling the creation of new works, acquisition of masterpieces, and financial stability. - Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, in her inaugural season, has already introduced world premiere commissions and works rarely seen in the United States, with a focus on innovation and expanding the repertoire. - The donation, from an anonymous donor, includes $50 million for the endowment to support the annual creation and acquisition of new works, and $10 million to ensure financial stability for Rojo's initial seasons. - SF Ballet aims to use this gift to continue prioritizing new work development, nurturing choreographic talent, and expanding its repertoire to reach new audiences and artists. - The donation is seen as a testament to SF Ballet's commitment to artistic excellence and innovation, and it is hoped that it will inspire further investment in the company's future. For Donor Intelligence, please contact Diligencify at info@diligencify.com #Diligence #DueDiligence #KYC #Donor #Donation #Compliance #University #Casino #Banking #EDD #RealEstate #HNWI #UHNWI #Dossier #Foundation #Alumni #Wealth #WealthIntelligence #Sanctions #CDD #PEP #DonorSearch #Luxury #Millionaire #Billionaire #RiskIntelligence #Data #DonorIntelligence #NonProfit #Gambling #Wealthy #Influencers #WorldCheck #Litigation #Networth #Diligencify

Just looked at tickets for an unnamed ballet company’s upcoming performance in September. The cheapest ticket was- $115. This is why people say the performing arts are dying. There has to be some sort of middle ground. I am in the performing arts myself, and there is no way I’d be able to spend 3 figures per person for one evening of entertainment. This isn’t New York City or San Francisco, either. There is no reason arts orgs in normal cities should be pricing their lowest tickets at 3 figures, period. I understand that non-profit organizations need tons of money to function, but they can’t act surprised when they lose more and more new audiences every year. Oof! I don’t claim to have all the answers but I sincerely hope these large performing arts organizations are desperately seeking solutions to this issue and are considering lowering the prices to attend their events. If your only customers are ultra-rich elderly people, what does your strategic plan for the future look like? #performingarts #nonprofits #ballet #symphonyorchestra

These talented children have not only mastered the art of ballet, but also the values of teamwork, discipline, and confidence. With every graceful step, they are building a brighter future for themselves and their community. #youthimpact #balletfolklorico #EmpoweringYouth #youthimpactogden #futureleaders #afterschoolprograms #donate #youthempowerment #youthprograms #supportouryouth #ogden

Community: We need some help, putting this out to the universe: As some of you know, our 15-year-old son Cole won this rare scholarship to a career-making 5-week Summer Intensive training at the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA), one of the top circus schools in the country. It’s the training ground for many elite performers who’ve gone on to Cirque du Soleil and The 7 Fingers (stars of Water for Elephants now on Broadway). The intensive NECCA program is normally just for adults 18+ yet they're making an exception for Cole. We need to arrange lodging in or near Brattleboro VT for 5 weeks, July 14-Aug 18. Lodging has to be within daily driving distance (less than 30 mins each way) as he’ll be training 6 days/week. Even with the scholarship (value $3K), the cost of 5 weeks of lodging and travel poses a challenge (est $4K-$6K). But we’re determined to make this happen. Please message me if you: A) Know anyone in/near Brattleboro VT who has a spare room to rent cheap, or is going on vacation and needs a house-sitter. B) Have hotel points to donate/gift. Even a night or two could help cut the cost, or... C) Can contribute anything to this GoFundMe to help underwrite his travel costs. Please feel free to share and thanks for anything at all you can do to help us make this dream possible for this incredible kid and emerging performing artist. https://gofund.me/32865ca4

7 years of collaboration between Philanthropy and Government to bring this remaking to life

Here's a highlight from a recent client project. Keep Abeles & Company in mind for your next Corporate, Nonprofit or Social event needs. This specific nonprofit project involved event and fundraising strategic planning; executive/committee/volunteer engagement, event production services from ideation to execution.

IEC (Electoral Commission of South Africa) , you had so few things to coordinate and so long to plan. Why are there no ballet boxes at Orange Grove Primary School voting station yet, you are 30 minutes late and apparently its not the only station without?. One of your few roles is to encourage voters.. #noexcuses #reputationmatters #credibilityisimportant #getyouracttogether

People know Oscar Wilde the spinner of repartee, Oscar Wilde the gay martyr, Oscar Wilde the disconcertingly sentimental poet, and Oscar Wilde as dandy/celebrity/walking down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in his medieval hand (thanks a bunch for that image, William Schwenk Gilbert). Perhaps they don't know Wilde the radical philosopher. These are a few of the many incendiary lines from his essay, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891): "As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment, than it is by the occurrence of crime." "Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community, and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary." "[Charity] is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible." Those ain't easy sentiments to choreograph, but worth having in your mind if you're able to watch the nightingales and the Dorian Grays in the Australian Ballet's production of Christopher Weeldon's Oscar: Melbourne / Naarm 13 - 24 September 2024; Sydney / Warrang 8 - 23 November 2024 https://lnkd.in/guHtvW9H

Team - A group of persons associated together in work or activity I've been coaching soccer for 8 years now, and my eldest is now on the Varsity Soccer team, but the big difference of him playing for me in Club and him playing at the HS level is that I promoted TEAM, and we have fun while playing, but his team has players that promote individual efforts and quickly place the blame if it's warranted or not; one team is winning, while the other is floundering. The same can be said where we work - I think it might be more comparable to wrestling or golf or tennis or cross country - if the group that you are in does not communicate, support, learn, celebrate with others regularly that are on your team, then your group is going to flounder and be difficult to move forward. Yes, there is a manager that is checking in daily/weekly/monthly, but if your team doesn't interact together we soon lose members that are not feeling success or feel connected to the cause... We must have a team that celebrates, shares, teaches, interacts together, or we will be rebuilding the teams often. This might be open office hours over zoom/teams, weekly afterhours, a monthly lunch and learn, a continuous text chain, a quick "howdy-doo".... Team - A group of persons associated together in work or activity #nonprofit #fundraising #development #advancement #teamwork #dreamwork https://lnkd.in/gfCK7fCE