WaterFire Providence expects to hold fewer events this year than last, due to weakened fundraising in a down economy. Organizers are trying to counter the effects of the recession by increasing efforts to draw in small-business and personal donations.
“Like many nonprofits, we’re trying to improve our efficiency,” creator Barnaby Evans said recently. “We’ve had a pretty good return of our sponsors, but we have a lot of sponsors who, in the broader context, have had to lay people off. Although their affection for us remains, we understand that they’ve had to make some very difficult choices.”
Now entering its 15th year, the installation is a series of metal baskets – called “braziers” – that hold fires along the Providence River and in the Waterplace Park basin. The event usually runs on weekends, with the fires lit 20 minutes after sundown and staying lit until at least midnight. The season is expected to officially start this month and wrap up by October.
Many of the event sponsors are returning this year and Sovereign Bank will again hold its Sovereign Plaza Ballroom event with a dance floor set up in the city’s financial district.
One of the event’s major fundraising problems – and also WaterFire’s strength – is that it’s become so popular and nearly synonymous with Providence’s summer nightlife, Evans said. “It fits into the urban landscape so well” that many people think it is a city-funded event, he said. “As a result, many people don’t realize that we’re an independent nonprofit and need funding.”
WaterFire’s staff is actively trying to augment some of the corporate cutbacks with smaller giving. Bronwyn Dannenfelser, WaterFire’s director of development, said the nonprofit is pushing for new sponsors to join The Brazier Society of WaterFire Providence, a lesser-cost sponsorship program. While single-event sponsorship ranges anywhere from $15,000 to more than $140,000, the Brazier club membership goes for as little as $2,500.
The new schedule is expected to be announced May 7. Last year there were 16 Waterfire events.
This year WaterFire is also set to introduce a line of smaller “celebrations” that can be purchased. Those ceremonies, set up on the edges of the river while WaterFire is under way, will be designed by Evans and his staff. They can accommodate most events, including birthday parties, family reunions, wedding anniversaries and “adventurous or quiet” marriage proposals or a business gathering.
“It’s … an opportunity for more people, more companies, to incorporate something of their own into WaterFire,” Evans said. “They are different ways that people can reach out to us so we can make a special event and they can celebrate in the park, amidst everyone else, with candle lanterns or torch processions.”
The nonprofit has also created a partnership with The Groden Center, a school and treatment center that works with the developmentally disabled.
With an annual operating budget of about $1.7 million, WaterFire employs 14 year-round employees, Evan said. While the events are all during the summer, many costs are year-round.
“When we add up all those costs, it comes to about $100 per bonfire for 15 minutes,” Evans said.
And some costs are more than might be expected, Dannenfelser said. Take, for example, bathrooms: WaterFire annually pays $21,000 for portable toilets and another $5,000 for access to some Rhode Island School of Design facilities.
“When people ask how much a single WaterFire costs, it’s a tricky answer,” Dannenfelser said. •
