Four-Day Week and Donated Services Help Orchestra Soften Budget Gap

For the first time in 60 years, the Sarasota Orchestra, in Florida, faced a deficit last year that forced it to raid its reserves — wiping out $515,000, or nearly half of its savings.

The organization cut the salaries of orchestra workers by up to 10 percent, with senior staff members absorbing the steepest reductions.

In this harsh economic climate, says the orchestra’s president, Joseph McKenna, “you have to think differently. You can get angry, you can get afraid, or you can use your creativity.”

To help his own employees cope, Mr. McKenna encouraged them to work a four-day week during the summer off-season months. Not only did that improve morale, he says, it has also helped offset their pay cuts.

“They saved a little bit of money by not having to pay for day care and gas on Fridays,” he says. “Or maybe now they cannot afford lawn care, so maybe they can do it themselves. At least they could be home with their family.”

And when a local church that had been renting space from the arts group for the past 20 years said it could no longer afford the payments due to declining contributions, orchestra officials had an idea.

“We had some gutter problems and other stuff we needed fixed,” recalls Mr. McKenna. “Could congregants donate those services?”

It turns out they could. In exchange for reduced rent, church members have donated many services the orchestra would otherwise have had to pay for, including landscaping, cleaning, and light construction projects.