We're kicking off our season of giving for the Countdown Improv Festival -- and this year, your support is needed more than ever!
The Florida Legislature recently decided to cut some arts funding from the FY 24-25 state budget, and the upshot is that the festival will not be receiving a $25,000 state grant it had been promised. This news has thrown our festival budget into disarray, and we're scrambling to make up the funding gap. But with less than one week left until this year's festival begins, we're running out of time!
So to help us close this sudden budget gap, we're holding a fundraiser! Help us reach our $12,500 fundraising goal so that we can make the 2024 Countdown Improv Festival the biggest and best one yet .
2024 will be the biggest and most ambitious year yet for the Countdown Improv Festival: the world's only improv comedy festival exclusively devoted to trio, duo, and solo performance. Produced by Countdown Arts, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the festival will take place in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa from August 7-11, 2024. We need your support to help make it happen.
From its humble beginnings in 2017, the Countdown Improv Festival has grown into one of the best, most acclaimed events of its kind. In 2024, we will build on our track record of success by, among other things, running shows on three separate stages at the HCC Ybor Performing Arts Building, introducing new audiences to our event, and expanding our programming to include performances and workshops for kids, teens, and families. Your financial support is critical to our efforts to fully resource the festival and help continue to make it a destination for world-class improv comedy in Tampa Bay.
We've set a campaign goal of $12,500 , a sum that will help us offset costs associated with securing the venue, programming world-class shows and workshops, extending unparalleled hospitality to our instructors and performers, expanding our production team, and promoting the festival across the region.
Countdown Improv Festival co-founders and producers Kelly Buttermore and Justin Peters are the world’s foremost independent improv duo, and have performed, taught, and produced improvisational comedy together for over a decade. As the duo known as From Justin to Kelly, they have performed and taught hundreds upon hundreds of times in 29 different states, D.C., Canada, and international waters, and have headlined dozens of national improv festivals.
In early 2017, they mobilized the firsthand experiences -- both positive and negative -- that they had gained by participating in other festivals to found the Countdown Improv Festival, the world’s first and only improv festival devoted exclusively to small-group improv. Their mission was to foster a professional, supportive, welcoming, community-focused event where all participants felt equally valued and appreciated. The festival, now in its eighth year, has quickly become the most anticipated event of the year for trio, duo, and solo improv across the nation.
Perks
Want to support the festival but don't need any merch? This giving level is for you! You'll be able to claim the full tax write-off and we won't send you any stuff. We will, however, thank you on the website and during the fundraising marathon. Thank you!
We're not making new fundraiser shirts this year -- we have so many damn shirts leftover from past festivals that it's sort of ridiculous. Give at this level and you'll get a super soft and stylish vintage Countdown shirt of our choosing, sent right to your door!
Donate at this level, and we'll name a room of your choosing at HCC after you for the entirety of the 2024 Countdown Improv Festival! Imagine the thrill of us ushering people in and out of the "[Your Name Here] Green Room" or pointing out the existence of "[Another Name Here] Bathroom"!
Donors at this level will be treated like VIPs at this year's Countdown Improv Festival. In addition to all of the preceding rewards, they'll enjoy 4 all-access weekend passes to the 2024 festival, and up to two complimentary slots per workshop, for up to three separate workshops over the course of the festival. Plus, we'll induct you into the Countdown Club: Our prestigious circle of high-rolling donors. This is basically just a "name-on-the-website" thing at this point, but there'll assuredly be more benefits as time goes on!
Highlights
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Want to support the festival but don't need any merch? This giving level is for you! You'll be able to claim the full tax write-off and we won't send you any stuff. We will, however, thank you on the website and during the fundraising marathon. Thank you!
We're not making new fundraiser shirts this year -- we have so many damn shirts leftover from past festivals that it's sort of ridiculous. Give at this level and you'll get a super soft and stylish vintage Countdown shirt of our choosing, sent right to your door!
Donate at this level, and we'll name a room of your choosing at HCC after you for the entirety of the 2024 Countdown Improv Festival! Imagine the thrill of us ushering people in and out of the "[Your Name Here] Green Room" or pointing out the existence of "[Another Name Here] Bathroom"!
Donors at this level will be treated like VIPs at this year's Countdown Improv Festival. In addition to all of the preceding rewards, they'll enjoy 4 all-access weekend passes to the 2024 festival, and up to two complimentary slots per workshop, for up to three separate workshops over the course of the festival. Plus, we'll induct you into the Countdown Club: Our prestigious circle of high-rolling donors. This is basically just a "name-on-the-website" thing at this point, but there'll assuredly be more benefits as time goes on!
