The RSO Foundation

Working its Magic to Support the RSO for 15 years

By Keith Syfert, Immediate Past President of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra Foundation

How can the RSO Foundation receive $2 million in gifts from its generous donors and distribute nearly $900,000 to the RSO, yet still retain all of the $2 million in contributions — plus more — prudently invested to generate future revenue? Some might call it magic, but it really is the result of the creative vision, generosity, and hard work of a small group of dedicated RSO supporters.

Led by LoRayne Logan, this small group of visionaries established the Rockford Symphony Orchestra Foundation almost 15 years ago as an independent endowment designed to generate a reliable, significant, and never-ending stream of revenue to the RSO. From the outset, the Foundation’s guiding principle was and remains a commitment that donors’ gifts would never, ever be spent. Rather, their generous contributions would remain untouched with only the revenue from those invested gifts being used to support the RSO. That commitment has never been broken.

Immediately following the Foundation’s creation, Richard “Dick” Nordlof — an original Foundation organizer and board member — kickstarted the endowment fundraising campaign by making an opening gift of $500,000, still the largest lifetime gift ever received by the Foundation. Since then and continuing to this day, dozens of other extremely generous RSO supporters have made lifetime and estate gifts to the Foundation totaling some $2 million. Each of these donors now are permanent Foundation members and the names of all donors contributing $1,000 or more are printed in perpetuity on the Foundation page of each RSO concert book.

Thanks to Richard Nordlof's endowment gift supporting RSO guest artists, students at Marshall Elementary School were able to enjoy an outreach performance from pianist Wei Luo on March 18, 2022.

Photo Credit: Neil Bloom

The vision which gave rise to the Foundation has been an amazing success. Since 2009, the Foundation has distributed in total nearly $900,000 in critical funding to the RSO. The annual distribution from the Foundation to the Symphony has increased every year since 2009 to over $90,000 in 2021. In the last five years alone, the Foundation has transferred more than half a million dollars to the RSO, including a special one-time distribution of $100,000 as an incentivizing “matching gift” to the Larsen Legacy Campaign. Most importantly, every dollar of the $2 million donated to the Foundation over the years remains untouched and prudently invested to generate future revenue for the RSO.

It is not an exaggeration to say that your contribution to the Foundation truly is a magical “gift that keeps on giving” forever.

For more information on making a gift to the RSOF or a special naming opportunity, contact Executive Director Julie Thomas at 815.965.0049 or jthomas@rockfordsymphony.com.