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2021/2022 “We Always Swing”® Jazz Series “Top It Off” Individual Donor Campaign

The “Swinging Saxophonist”™ pilsner glass is charged up and ready to go! The special 32 oz. notched pilsner glass returns for the season-long campaign. Each “ounce” = $2,813. Help get the campaign off to a good start. Consider making a tax-deductible pledge when ordering tickets. Thank you!

On behalf of the Jazz Series Staff and Board of Directors we would like to again thank the more than 500 Individual Donors who supported the “We Always Swing”® Jazz Series during the previous season. Your cumulative generosity on both annual and ongoing bases humbles us but more importantly allows us to enthusiastically greet each new season every July 1. Your financial commitment continues to allow us to produce one season after the next, and the next, and the next… We are up to Season No. 24 — and thanks in large part to you, we remain a full-service, innovative, artistically driven and comprehensive all-jazz, community-based, concert-and-education project, one that continues to draw praise from not only Columbians and Central Missourians, but from all across the country.

With the arrival of the new season, we turn to YOU, our faithful concertgoers and supporters, to ask you to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Annual Individual Donor Campaign. The impact of your gifts at this juncture delivers a key — to use a cliché — shot in the arm, one that starts the campaign off right from jump street and bolsters and nurtures the new Jazz Series Season from the get-go. For the last several years, we have used one of the best conceived “thermometers” to keep track of how the “Top It Off!” Campaign is progressing. Since we personified the specially designed 32-“ounce” “Swinging Saxophonist”™ notched Pilsner Glass as a way to mark our progress, it’s become — thanks to our donors — a great symbol of our unmitigated success!

During the recent past, the Jazz Series, due to OUTSIDE budget cuts, must now generate an additional $30,000+ annually to help cover various expenses that, heretofore, were funded via outside agencies. This represents approximately 10 percent of our annual budget. While we’re pleased to announce — proudly so — this this financial shift did not impact any programming on either the concert or education side, it certainly required a great deal of ingenuity on our part. In part, it is your generosity that continues to help us offset such an initially unanticipated development.

Already a contributor? Contributed a long time ago? Never contributed?

For those of you who have supported the Jazz Series previously and continue to support us, we say “Thank You” a hundred times over. We also would like to ask you to “Top Off” your own personal gift if you can, adding 10 percent or a greater amount to your generosity. For those of you who have not pledged previously or have not done so for many years, we say welcome — and welcome back — as well as saying “Thank You!” for your considerations

Contributing to the Jazz Series has never been easier

SPECIAL “TOP IT OFF!” DONOR PREMIUMS

The Jazz Series is pleased to offer special premiums at various levels during this season’s campaign

• $25+ Student/$60+ Public: A Year-Long Jazz Series membership. Borrow titles from the Jazz Series Lending Library.
• $150+ Level: Become a Sustainable Freeman Library Member at the $150+ Level. I/We would like to receive the “Best of Vonski” 2CD/DVD set.
• $250+ Level: Become a Sustainable Freeman Library Member at the $250+ Level. Receive the “Best of Vonski” 2CD/DVD set + a Pair of Tickets to see Chico Freeman Plus+Tet in concert (3/22/18).
• $350+ Level: Become a Sustainable Freeman Library Member at the $350 Level and receive the above premiums PLUS a Personalized Lending Library Name Plate Shelf.
• $500+ Level: Receive an additional pair of “Best Seats” tickets to EITHER: Eddie Palmieri/“Eddie @ 80,” Anat Cohen Tentet OR Matt Wilson’s “Honey And Salt” PLUS A set of FOUR (4) Customized “Top It Off! 22-Ounce Pilsner Glasses with Jazz Series Logo + North Coast Brewing Co. Logo.