At the end of its season at the end of May, Eugene Ballet leadership was surprised to receive an unexpected $1 million gift from an anonymous donor. The gift is the largest single donation in the company’s history, and comes at the close of its inaugural season under new artistic leadership.
This past year was the first season the company performed under Jennifer Martin as artistic director, following Toni Pimble, who stepped down from the position at the end of the 2024-2025 season.
“This gift is a profound vote of confidence in our artists, our mission, and the direction we’re headed,” says Martin. The donor remains anonymous, even to the company’s leadership.
When Executive Director Josh Neckels received notification from the bank that the company had received a deposit, he nearly dismissed it as spam, but decided to call the bank to check. When he discovered the size of the gift, he shared it with the astonished Martin and Suzanne Haag, associate artistic director and resident choreographer.
For Neckels, the timing was significant. “At the close of a year of transition and the start of a new chapter, this is a transformational gift that sends a clear message about the value Eugene Ballet holds in this community.”
In recent years, Eugene Ballet has received state and national recognition for its work. In 2020, Toni Pimble was awarded the Governor’s Arts Award by then Governor Kate Brown. In 2023 the Dance Data Project, a global nonprofit that promotes gender equity in the dance industry, awarded Eugene Ballet the Best Overall and Best of Commissions awards because of the company’s commitment to commissioning female creators and promoting women to leadership roles. And this year Suzanne Haag was awarded the Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene’s Arts and Letters Award, given to individuals who have profoundly enriched the local cultural life as an artist.
Eugene Ballet is also responsible for the transformation of a small rehearsal space into the state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot Midtown Arts Center, which opened in January 2021. The facility is owned and managed by Eugene Ballet and acts as a home and hub for eight other nonprofit arts organizations.
The million dollar gift is unrestricted. The company’s board and staff are currently discussing the best way to allocate funds to all areas of the organization with an eye on sustainability, addressing both immediate needs and more long-range thinking. Martin explains, “Eugene Ballet now has the opportunity to deepen its artistic vision, expand community programming, and plan strategically for the years ahead.”
For Haag, the donation is inspiring. “This gift fills me with hope,” she says. “I am so grateful that this funding provides not only the practical ability to help sustain the organization and move us forward, but also the knowledge that someone feels so inspired and moved by what we do as an organization.”
