With a new endowment fund, Davenport Junior Theatre looks to preserve its legacy

Not every kid who takes a class, does a camp, or joins a production at Davenport Junior Theatre finds themselves pursuing a career in the performing arts—but that’s not the theater’s mission.

“We’re not aiming to make the next Tony Award–winning actor or designer,” said Daniel Sheridan, performing arts supervisor for Davenport Parks and Recreation and development director of Junior Theatre, Inc., the nonprofit organization that is the backbone of the theater’s work. “Our goal is to create good community members who are thoughtful and can communicate with clarity and confidence and be creative together. Though we do have alumni in our ranks who won a Tony.”

Sheridan got his own start with Junior Theatre in the early 1990s at the age of 11, returning in 2008 to take over as artistic director until 2020. Now, as the theater enters its 71st season, he’s determined to see that it can continue to provide access to the arts for generations of local students to come, no matter where their journeys take them. To do that, Junior Theatre has partnered with the Quad Cities Community Foundation to build a nonprofit endowment fund that will help bring the organization permanent financial stability.  

“We’re the second-oldest children’s theater in the whole United States,” said Sheridan. “We want to honor and continue that legacy by making sure we’ll be here far into the future—to ensure that every kid has access to these skills and that this resource is always here for the community.”

“We’re so pleased to partner with one of the Quad Cities’ storied institutions as it takes this exciting step,” said Joscelyn Rowe, the Community Foundation’s director of donor engagement and stewardship. “The arts will always be vital to our community’s vibrancy as a place to live or visit, and we want to see Junior Theatre go on playing its unique role.”

With its endowment fund invested by the Community Foundation, the theater will gain a flexible, reliable source of annual funding that will only grow over time. That means the organization can fill funding gaps or better weather tough economic times, as well as strategically plan for the future.

“For so long, we’ve gone from project to project, living in and getting through the moment,” said Sheridan. “Now, we’ll be able to think more broadly and proactively about where we want to be in five or 10 years and how we can serve the community more. We know we do a good job of it, but this is about creating a sustainable resource that people can give to and understand that their gift will keep giving for decades to come as Junior Theatre becomes stronger.”

While Sheridan and the theater had been planning to fundraise the $10,000 needed to permanently endow the fund, they were surprised—and overwhelmed with gratitude—by a $20,000 estate gift made by Lynda Shawver, who had generously supported Junior Theatre during her lifetime and passed away this past January. The theater used half the gift to establish the endowment fund and put half toward its day-to-day operations, a balancing act Sheridan recognizes the theater will need to master as it sets a vision for the future. “We’re so grateful for people who want to put part of their own legacy into the theater, and we’re excited to have a perfect place for those gifts to go.”

As Sheridan considers how to engage friends and alumni of the theater in building the Junior Theatre Endowment Fund, he’s looking to the support of the Community Foundation. “We don’t have the skillset to manage an endowment fund ourselves, and we loved the idea of working with another local nonprofit organization that’s in the service of the community,” he said.

Not only has Sheridan made good use of the Community Foundation’s Nonprofit Endowment Building Toolkit, a “plug-and-play” resource available to nonprofit endowment fund holders, but he also knows that the Community Foundation staff is always on the other end of the line whenever he has a question. “That’s what we wouldn’t get if our endowment wasn’t held by the Community Foundation,” he said.

Want to learn more about how the Community Foundation can help your nonprofit start and grow an endowment fund? Email Joscelyn Rowe at joscelynrowe@qccommunityfoundation.org or Anne Calder at AnneCalder@qccommunityfoundation.org or call (563) 326-2840.