Music Center Goes for Hard Money : Unified Fund Campaign Needs Additional $2.8 Million

It almost sounded anticlimatic. Of the $9.5-million goal for the 1986 Music Center Unified Fund campaign, $6.7 million was raised even before the campaign officially began.

However, that was the “easy money”--money from people and corporations who had given before, many of whom were on the campaign council, declared Joseph J. Pinola, chairman of this year’s fund campaign, at the kickoff luncheon for fund leadership and the media Wednesday in the Grand Hall of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

The $2.8 million yet to be raised by June 30 “will be the most difficult. . . . But we’re going to do it,” he said. “It will just take a lot of prodding.”

Pinola, chairman and chief executive officer of First Interstate Bancorp and a former chairman of the United Way Fund Campaign, then quoted a Gallup Poll survey that said the single most important reason cited for giving to charities was “that they were asked.” So the plan was simply to ask many more people.

In straight numbers, vice chairwoman Esther Wachtell said, they planned to increase their donor base from 15,000 to 17,000. This would come through direct mailings and also approaching smaller businesses, plus industries that formerly have not been actively involved at the Music Center.

Council, Cabinet Formed

In addition, Pinola has named an 11-member Chairman’s Council and a 40-member Campaign Cabinet made up of major corporate executives and community leaders who will direct the operations of the 1986 campaign and help spark increased corporate, foundation and individual giving.

The luncheon, which at times had the tone of a pep rally, brought together the people who will be doing the prodding with representatives of nearly all the Music Center Companies supported by the fund. The Music Center resident companies include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Center Theatre Group-Mark Taper Forum, the Joffrey Ballet, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Music Center Opera Assn., the Performing Arts Council and the Music Center Education Division. The fact that this year’s goal is $1 million more than the $8.5 million raised last year, Wachtell said, is because of the increased needs of those companies.

The luncheon also drew a number of entertainment celebrities among the corporate faces. Among them: Carl (Doc) Severinsen, who, backed by 18 USC musicians, performed a dramatic trumpet fanfare to herald the opening of remarks; actor Richard Dreyfuss, a director of the Music Center’s Education Council, who served as the luncheon’s master of ceremonies; actress Lauren Tewes, who has been active in the Music Center’s children’s programs; and Jon Bauman of the singing group Sha Na Na, who has put in time with the Music Center Book Fund and its Very Special Arts Festival.