As the company looked toward its next era, the challenge was to preserve that legacy while telling a clearer, more compelling story about where opera is heading — one that could support serious fundraising conversations.

SF Opera had an ambitious vision: modernize the art form, expand access, support new work, and engage a new generation of patrons. To bring donors into that vision, they needed a narrative that wove together history, artistic excellence, civic relevance, and future opportunity into a single cohesive story.

Referred by a VC partner, we collaborated closely with their team to develop a strategic presentation that reframed their modernization efforts. The story moved from the historical role of visionary patrons in shaping opera, to SF Opera’s own place in that lineage, to the concrete initiatives, leadership, partnerships, and investment opportunities defining its next chapter.

The result was a fundraising narrative designed to help donors and investors see their support not as a transaction, but as a chance to leave a lasting legacy for one of the world’s great art forms — and one of America’s most significant cultural institutions.

“It was so inspiring to experience how you got to the core of our story, and how you focused us in such a clear and purposeful way. That has helped us think about how we talk about ourselves in many ways, beyond even this project.”

— Matthew Shilvock, General Director, San Francisco Opera