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Henry Young, who has raised funds as a development director for live theater and other arts organizations from New York to Minneapolis and many other U.S. cities, has brought his fundraising support organization, YoungAssociates LLC, from Maryland to Tampa.
Established in 1976, YoungAssociates has helped secondary schools; healthcare organizations; community foundations; and service organizations with specialization in the performing arts, including ballet and theatre companies, chamber orchestras, choirs and performing arts centers.
It has helped organizations raise more than $200 million since the company's inception.
Some of the keys for fundraisers on the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, Young says, include building good relationships with donors and giving them enough time to structure how they want to give a major gift, and working with them on that.
“If you're a subscriber to an arts organization and you've attended five great shows, and no one has asked you for a donation, that needs to be looked at,” Young says. “After a superior product, the next most important ingredient for an arts organization is development.”
Young, 61, a Navy veteran, chose Tampa for lifestyle and family reasons and for demographics, which fit in with the donors he pursues for organizations. He is restoring a 1923 bungalow in Seminole Heights in Tampa.
Young is impressed by Florida's array of arts offerings, which he likes to “cherry pick” such the Sarasota Ballet, Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Winter Park and the Florida Orchestra in Tampa Bay. He said they may benefit from fundraising counseling.
Before launching YoungAssociates as a full-time practice in 1998, Young worked for nonprofits in chief development positions for more than 20 years. Those included the New York City Center Joffrey Ballet.
Young also volunteered in Belarus on behalf of the Belarusian Center for Pediatric Oncology and Belarusian Children's Fund as a result of Chernobyl. He found that removing children from the area, tainted by radioactive dust, caused their health problems to subside and reverse.
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