Endowment

Will the Philadelphia Orchestra Association be permitted to end its participation in the current musicians' pension plan? And if so, will the association be compelled to tap its $120 million endowment to satisfy the estimated $23 million cost of withdrawing from the pension fund? In connection with its April 16 bankruptcy petition, the orchestra association has claimed that the $120 million endowment cannot be touched. The principal was designated by donors to remain unspent, the association contends.

Four years after opening as Philadelphia's answer to Lincoln Center, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is still posting persistent deficits and is looking at a number of moneymaking ventures - from buying parking lots to stripping the front of its building with electronic advertising. But such revenue streams are small potatoes compared with what's really needed: Eliminating about $30 million in debt incurred when construction costs rose and fund-raising fell short, plus boosting endowment to a level healthy for an arts center of the Kimmel's size.

Frank Dolson was explaining why the Penn Relay Carnival is unique. To the former Inquirer columnist, the return of countless officials each year without pay - often at their own expense - to work the three-day track and field event is the ideal example of its distinctiveness. "And they paid dearly for it," Dolson, 73, said yesterday at a news conference for the Relays, which begin next Thursday. Through an endowment of $1.25 million, Dolson has paid in his own way for an event he has cherished for more than 50 years.

More than three years after its opening, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is marching ahead with its original mission intact, importing Peter Pan, k.d. lang and the orchestras of Berlin and Boston while providing a home to local arts groups that say they love their new high-profile existence. But challenges are mounting rather than smoothing out as the Kimmel shifts from building to operations mode. Hobbled by a paltry endowment, the Kimmel still is not operating with a balanced budget.

More than six years after opening night, the $275 million Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is finally paid for. In the largest arts bailout in the city's history, several large philanthropies have opened their silk purses to help eliminate the $30 million debt left over from the Kimmel's construction phase, while dozens of individual donors are pitching in to boost the center's endowment to $72 million. The complex deal - involving the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Lenfest Foundation, Sidney Kimmel, the state and other sources - brings almost $74 million in total assistance to Philadelphia's arts center.

While some peer institutions are announcing layoffs to cope with large endowment losses, the University of Pennsylvania has fared better - and yesterday's report to the Board of Trustees reflected that optimism. Perhaps most encouraging, the university's $5.6 billion endowment was up 10 percent for the most recent quarter, ending Sept. 30, and flat for the 12-month period. During the same period, the market dropped 9.4 percent. "It's hard to believe it's flat from 12 months ago," said trustee David Silfen, senior director of the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc., at yesterday's regularly scheduled board meeting.

Winterthur, the former home of Henry Francis du Pont and one of the wealthiest cultural institutions in the region, said yesterday it was cutting 15 full-time staff members, reducing salaries by 2 percent to 5 percent, closing Mondays, and shutting down its Historic Homes of Odessa. The cutbacks come as Winterthur's endowment has dropped more than 30 percent from $403 million in March 2000 to $267 million at the close of trading Wednesday. Each year, nearly 200,000 people visit Winterthur, which is just outside Wilmington.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has landed another multimillion-dollar gift for its endowment. The $10 million promise, expected to be announced today, comes from a member of the orchestra family, former board chairman Joseph Neubauer and his wife, Jeanette. The challenge grant requires the orchestra to raise an additional $20 million for its endowment: $10 million from its board and $10 million from other donors by Aug. 31. Neubauer, 63, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Aramark Corp.

Lawyers for the American Federation of Musicians and Employers' Pension Fund are combing through more than 50,000 e-mails from computer servers of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, lawyers told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eric L. Frank on Thursday. E-mails of the orchestra's chief executive and financial officers and of development staff from the last several years were included in the electronic culling. In court, Frank called the e-mail portion of the discovery process "a daunting task, both in terms of producing it and reviewing it. " Fund officials hope that the e-mail probe, approved by the judge as part of the orchestra's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, will support their suspicion that a portion of the orchestra's endowment was not earmarked for the endowment by donors, and is therefore available to creditors as part of any bankruptcy settlement plan.

The Curtis Institute of Music has met a challenge from two area philanthropies, netting a total of $15 million in cash and pledges for the school's endowment. The offer, from the Lenfest and Annenberg Foundations, promised $6 million if Curtis could raise $9 million in new money by Dec. 31. It did so - attracting 244 pledges ranging in size from $10 to $1.6 million. Curtis says the boost in endowment will help ensure its tuition-free policy, an aspect of the conservatory that sets it apart from other top schools, such as Juilliard, the New England Conservatory, and the Peabody Institute.