OCT is at a critical moment: our business model, like many theatres across the country, is not sustainable. We need to closely examine and evaluate our mission, our programs, our funding sources, and community priorities, and proactively decide how to move forward with a new strategic plan.

Since 2023, the year after losing a grant that provided a third of our revenue, OCT has been cutting expenses and reducing staff. We’ve had to make cuts to our programming, cut resources, ultimately cutting our impact. We’ve tried very hard to remain a functioning company—and we served over 80,000 kids in 2024, despite our financial challenges.

We need our full attention on solving the problem and we cannot do that operating under the status quo. This intentional pause will allow us to focus our time, energy, and resources so that we are being the greatest stewards of the money we are being given to do our work.

We’ve already begun this work by conducting community-based and local area research, asking how we can best serve our community. While holding onto a few key staff positions during the pause in programming, OCT will examine all possible opportunities for success including evaluating other theatres’ success, possible mergers and growing partnerships, expanding our reach into greater Oregon, identifying schools that may be good partners for our work, and more. We will work to develop a strategic plan that reimagines how we operate and that builds a financially sustainable future.

Our programming pause will begin September 1, 2025; this means we will not be producing any shows or offering any education programming until we have a solid plan and are confident in our ability to activate our work in a fiscally sustainable way. Until then, our promise to our community is an unwavering commitment to provide the highest-quality programming to our youth: the Young Professionals Company will perform their Readers Series production this May, and our Education Team will be offering our exceptional spring classes and summer camps.

The need for this pause and examination period is a combination of several factors. We know that COVID-19 disproportionately impacted theatres across the country. Many theatrical and arts organizations did not survive. Many of those that did survive continue to struggle to return to pre-pandemic numbers. In 2022 OCT lost a major grant that made up 33% of our revenue and completely covered the cost of all of our education programs. Since then we’ve been working hard to continue offering critical theatre education programming, despite not having reliable funding. To continue down this road without certain funding sources would be fiscally irresponsible, taking us further away from achieving our mission.

60% of our annual revenue comes from ticket sales and arts education programming, with an additional 14.5% coming from individual donors. As we pause revenue-generating programs to focus on strategic planning, we are seeking donations to fund operations. It is our intention to return stronger than ever, and maintaining a small but mighty team will help us be able to achieve that. 

Historically, OCT was a $3M organization. $1M will help us achieve this first line of strategic work, community engagement, planning and rebuilding.  It will allow us to do the work we need to do to come back on line and serve our community.

OCT will invest the money that we raise back into our work. Just because we are in a programming pause does not mean the work stops or comes at no cost. $1 million would allow us to pay for strategic planning facilitators, build capacity for development, operating costs, and staffing. It positions OCT to be able to launch our new work when we are ready—that could mean producing or presenting a show, developing and initiating new arts education programs, or relaunching existing work.

$125,000 represents about one month of operating expenses; the money raised May through August 2024 helped us sustain our programming through that summer. We are so grateful that those funds allowed us to provide exceptional education programming last summer, and provided enough financial stability so we could present Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical last fall, which served over 22,000 children and their families.

Yes! OCT currently receives 17% of our funding in the form of grants and other financial support from foundations and public agencies, and we are thankful for our supporters who will continue to fund OCT through our strategic pause. Like all other non-profit organizations, as governmental priorities shift and public agencies are losing critical funds, we are facing reduced funding opportunities that have historically sustained our work.

If OCT does not reach our fundraising goal, we will not be able to complete the critical planning work we need in order to move forward. It is very possible that we will have to fully sunset the organization if we don’t reach our goal.

It is not our intention to sunset or close OCT. We recognize that the way we currently operate is unsustainable and we cannot move forward as we currently operate. We do believe that there is a way forward. OCT is a beloved institution in Portland. One of the only spaces that uplifts and encourages young people to be creative and show up in spaces, just as they are. It gives an opportunity for youth to learn to fail gloriously and to get up and confidently try again. We know from the initial responses to our community survey that families love OCT and need us to thrive.

We are so grateful for the outpouring of support we have already seen at this time. Our biggest need right now is financial support: donations, class & camp enrollments, and tickets to our YP Readers Series are all beneficial to our overall financial strength.

However, because our financial need is so great, we are also actively seeking larger gifts—such as corporate sponsorships, foundational and governmental grants, and strategic partnerships to help support our bottom line. If your business or organization is interested in being a sponsor please contact us directly.

For those who cannot donate financially, we are actively seeking community members to support us with their knowledge and connections: we have positions available on our Board of Directors, and have several advisory groups we will be engaging with in the coming months. If you are interested in joining the Board or an advisory group please contact us.