Building Stronger Connections Through One Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy

SWITCHED FROM DIAMOND TICKETING SYSTEMS IN 2021

Based in Long Beach, California, Musical Theatre West brings Broadway-quality productions to Southern California audiences, enriching the community through performance, education, and outreach. Founded in 1952, the organization now produces four mainstage shows annually and runs 18 educational programs, from dance and acting classes to youth camps and student matinees.

At the 2025 US Spektrix Hubs, Taylor Presnall (Development Coordinator) and Yadira Del Rincon (Donor Relations & Special Events Coordinator) shared how they transformed their approach to donor engagement, event management, and team collaboration by adopting fundraising tools in Spektrix. Their story demonstrates how fundraisers benefit when development, marketing, and ticketing teams work in sync.

Patron communications, from promotional messaging through to pre- and post-event emails, are often seen as the domain of the marketing department. But just like their web journeys, the team at Musical Theatre West recognized every touchpoint as part of the overall fundraising strategy for a successful nonprofit.

Drag and drop segmentation tools made it simple to identify first-time visitors, track engagement by ZIP code, and build a better overall understanding of the theater’s patrons. Once they understood what people are interested in and how often they’re attending, marketing, development, and education teams designed relevant messaging for each group.

“60% were looking at our productions, 40% at our education programs, and the other 10% looking at other events and fundraisers. We could send the right message at the right time and create the pathway to what they were looking for.”
 Yadira Del Rincon, Donor Relations & Special Events Coordinator

The team also embraced targeted pre- and post-show emails, delivered through Spektrix and its marketing engine in Dotdigital. With a big, popular summer show running, it wasn’t a great time for their parking lot to be under construction. They managed patrons’ expectations with clear, automated messaging before every visit, and followed up with post-show surveys to understand visitors’ experience.

“We're better at communicating personally to our patrons and speaking to their interests. We have a higher ROI. We have better engagement. We're encouraging them to return.”
 Yadira Del Rincon, Donor Relations & Special Events Coordinator

Education is at the heart of Musical Theatre West’s community mission, and now it’s an integral part of their data picture too.

Using the same system for fundraising and education allows the team to nurture long-term relationships: someone who takes a dance class today might become a donor tomorrow. 

“We can send a message like, ‘You loved our tap class - join us for the next session.’ It keeps the joy of learning in motion while building lasting relationships with our community.”

 Taylor Presnall, Development Coordinator

 Musical Theatre West’s story shows how a single nonprofit fundraising strategy - uniting ticketing, marketing, development, and education - can drive deeper relationships across an entire organization.

By embracing collaboration, using the full potential of the Spektrix system, and turning to the Support team for guidance, they’ve created a connected experience for every patron: from first-time visitors to major donors.