Norwich Theatre Royal

The Theatre Royal is the most important cultural organisation in the East of England, measured in terms of the number and variety of performances it stages and the number of theatre-goers it serves.

In late 2005 David Dixon was invited by Peter Wilson, Chief Executive of the Theatre to prepare a Feasibility Study for a £2m capital fundraising project. The Theatre required around £10m to undertake a complete refurbishment of its front-of-house areas and had secured £8m from other sources. But the remaining £2m was a tall order for a theatre with no fundraising department and the Director and Board needed to be sure that their plans were realistic and wanted to understand the processes and costs involved in undertaking a fundraising campaign of that size.

David and colleagues undertook the Feasibility Study early in 2006 and concluded that the Theatre’s reputation, good management and links with audience and community put it in a good position to tackle the fundraising campaign. The Board accepted this report and went on to ask David to prepare a complete Fundraising Blueprint for the campaign and to assist with the appointment of a new Development Director. After supporting the Theatre with this planning and start-up phase we bowed out and were delighted to see that in late 2007 the Theatre announce that it had virtually completed its fundraising and refurbishment.