PAR-Projects completes first $500K round of fundraising. Alisha Budkie joins Team PAR- to help launch Round 2.

 

If you Blinked too hard you may have missed it. With the help of organizations like ArtsWave, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and The Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation, both civic and cultural leaders are creating powerhouse experiences. Our town's symphony is thriving. Our major museums are producing nationally recognized exhibitions. Even our ballet and playhouses are making headlines. Cincinnati is doing BIG things!

Then there's us. Over at PAR-Projects, we don't make much noise. Why not?... Well... until now, we were still waiting our turn in line. There's a whole lot of fast action clutter out there. But in the same breath, there's a lot of fizzling out as well. Because of the latter, our goals have simply been to keep our head down, keep working, and be the best we can be. The cool thing is we've never changed our mission and we've always held ourselves to the highest of standards — press or no press. We too have BIG things to accomplish, so we can't afford the time it takes to make sure everyone knows what we're up to ... at all times ... day by day ... post by post.

A great thing is that our supporters and collaborators tend to stick around. And from what we gather, it's because we keep communications honest and we tend to keep projects moving along — day-by-day and/or year-by-year. The new-to-us thing is that it's finally time to start letting the public know what we're up to!

With that...

We are proud to let the world know that — through COVID and all — a few month's back, we hit our First $500,000 Round of support goal, without help from city or state government. Our drive has been lead by a number of local supporters who have stepped up in BIG ways, alongside the help of the three foundations we opened this conversation with — ArtsWave, Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and The Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation. And because our support has been so localized, the biggest take away may be that we are just getting started. For this especially, we owe our communities a tremendous amount of thanks. So, as always, we plan to keep things honest and make sure every investment in us continues to create opportunities for others.

That said, if you follow us on social media outlets, you may also know that we've been given a green light. Essentially after over four years of back-and-forth with city officials, our community development plans have cleared a number of zoning hurdles. But more importantly, building permits have now been issued for us to start construction of Phase 1 over at 1662 Hoffner Street. Now we just need to continue moving our fundraising efforts forward.

To help with this last bit, we've recruited Cincinnati native Alisha Budkie to join our team! Wait what? ... Yes! If name sounds familiar, but not so recent, it's because Alisha has spent her last few years overseas helping a number of businesses thrive in the private sector. 

That said, and maybe worth noting, Alisha was one of our first board members (at PAR-) six or seven years ago. And while she was taking time away from the hustle of co-founding Crafty SuperMarket; manifesting the dream that lives on as Indigo Hippo; or helping to lead the resurgence of Second Sundays on Main, she was helping us find our feet amongst Cincinnati creatives.

So, today, we cannot express how grateful we are that Alisha has agreed to cross The Atlantic Ocean to help our humble organization continue to grow! She brings to PAR- a wealth of knowledge related to strategy, community-building, fundraising, and education —just to name a few — so please do us a HUGE favor by helping us welcome her back to town!

And yes, all of this is simply to say "thanks" for tuning back in. Together we have a tremendous amount of work to accomplish, so having you in our corner as we continue to build on our recent successes is simply another win for us.

On June 22nd we'll be launching Round 2 of our capital campaign. We hope to see you there. But if not, please know there will be plenty of ways to show your support in the near future!

Thanks again,

Jonathan