{"id":946054,"date":"2026-10-06T14:52:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spektrix.com\/?p=946054"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:52:57","slug":"park-theatre-online-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spektrix.com\/en-au\/blog\/park-theatre-online-donations\/","title":{"rendered":"How Park Theatre increased theatre donations with an innovative ticket top-up feature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Park Theatre<\/a> has always been proud of what it is: a neighbourhood theatre with a global ambition. Unlike many London venues of a similar size, it doesn’t receive regular government or Arts Council funding. So the gap between what a ticket costs and what a show actually costs to stage has always been significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ticket price that doesn’t tell the whole story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before this project, around 3% of Park Theatre customers were voluntarily paying more than the advertised ticket cost, through donations. Not because their audiences didn’t care, but because it wasn\u2019t clear why theatre donations mattered, and there was no easy way to give.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u201cIf you\u2019re not educating people, people just come in and pay as little as they want, because everyone wants a deal. There is a big piece of education that has to be done.\u201d<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Jez Bond, Artistic Director
\nPark Theatre (as quoted in The Stage)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/cite>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Park Theatre didn’t want to raise prices across the board. That risked pushing out the audiences who wouldn\u2019t be able to afford it. Instead, they wanted to give people who could pay more the option to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When some friction can be a good thing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most booking journeys are designed to remove steps, not add them. Fewer clicks, fewer screens, fewer chances for someone to give up halfway through<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brief went against that instinct. Explaining how funding within the arts operates would require a carefully timed moment during the booking process. This meant adding something new into the journey rather than (our usual process of) stripping stages away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure how customers would react to something which pushes them to pay attention to donation messaging and interact more than they usually would with an in-basket donation."<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Dawn James, Sales & Marketing Director
\nPark Theatre<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/cite>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Park Theatre team were understandably nervous. But a bold challenge about the realities of theatre funding needed a bold way of posing it. The brief became less about minimising friction everywhere, and more about being deliberate with it. Making the donation conversation impossible to miss, while making it just as easy to politely decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n