Endowment
The AACT Endowment Fund began as an idea – and a challenge – to make the national festival of community theatre more accessible to theatres in communities all over the United States. That national festival – AACTFest – held every two years, is the culmination of the sharing of the work of hundreds of theatres and thousands of volunteers, in a process designed to improve the quality of their work.
As you can imagine, transporting a production – its cast, crew, sets and costumes – to a festival site can be expensive. The AACT Endowment Fund was created specifically to help companies representing their regions to pay some of their travel expenses to the national festival, or to subsequent international festivals.
The idea of the endowment began in 1983. Since 1991, the participating companies of every national festival have received travel grants.
Making a Difference
A board of trustees oversees the investment and growth of the AACT Endowment Fund, as well as the distribution of grants. The fund’s growth has been slow, but steady. As a result, grants have added up to $3000 to companies’ fundraising efforts – welcome, indeed, but representing only a small fraction of the costs involved in traveling to a national festival.
The Endowment Fund Board of Trustees continues to follow a policy that the first priority for endowment fund use is the support of community theatre participation in national and international festivals.
In order to increase the size of the grants, the fund’s trustees are committed to growing the fund itself. The goal is to offer significantly larger grants that will enable more companies to enter the festival. Now it’s your turn.
AACT Endowment Fund - Mission: Donate »
The AACT Endowment Mission Fund was established to further the mission of AACT -- to foster the highest standards of excellence by community theatres.
AACT Endowment Fund - Festival Support: Donate »
The AACT Endowment Festival Fund has a tradition of support of community theatre participation in national festivals.
AACT Legacy Society: More Information »
Established by the AACT Endowment Board of Trustees, the focus is to provide for long-term sustainability of AACT’s mission, and to support theatre participation in national festivals.
