Lilac Festival running low on cash

The future of Spokane’s annual Lilac Festival torchlight parade is being threatened as support within the community has dwindled over the past decade.

The event lost $46,000 last year, and the Spokane Lilac Festival Association’s once-substantial reserve fund is nearly gone.

But festival directors on Tuesday said they believe they can reinvigorate the 69-year-old Armed Forces Torchlight Parade through a new business plan that calls for more fundraising, promotions and sponsorships.

“We are having a parade. We are having a float,” said association President Sandy Brown. The theme of this year’s parade on May 19 is, Here’s to the Heroes.

But the event is being organized entirely by volunteers after the association was forced to trim its paid staff.

“We’ve made some mistakes,” said Arne Weinman, who is in charge of building Lilac Festival floats.

Financial problems started when losses of $35,000 and $30,900 were logged in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Efforts to increase income and cut expenses brought two years of lean profits – about $20,000 in 2004 and 2005 combined – but then more financial trouble came last year with the $46,000 loss.

“The trend line is continuing down,” Weinman said. “The potential is there for it to fail at some point.”

Brown said she is convinced that the parade has a place in Spokane. “Spokane does want a parade, but they have to get behind us and support us,” she said.

They said the Lilac Festival Association becomes an ambassador of sorts, sending its floats and delegations to as many as 18 parades throughout the region each year.

To survive, organizers are reaching out to businesses and media outlets with new marketing and sponsorship packages. They are stepping up fundraising through a telethon, now in its second year and scheduled for broadcast on KHQ on March 10. An August fundraiser, Sand in the City, will be in its second year.

The association is also seeking in-kind contributions in lieu of cash. For example, Celestial Selections of Spokane Valley donated gowns for the Lilac royalty competition.

Northern Quest Casino officials said in December that they would no longer sponsor scholarships for Lilac royalty competitors, and this year’s coronation of a Lilac queen will be moved from the casino to the Masonic Center.

Ross Printing supplied brochures and printed the business plan. Comcast and Citadel Communications are other partners.

The directors said they face increasing competition from other big community events, as well as a growing number of nonprofit organizations that are seeking contributions. In addition, the festival association has seen its ranks drop from as many as 70 or 80 directors to the current 37. The association had $180,000 in a reserve fund in 1995, but that is now down to less than $30,000.

A new five-year business plan lays out an aggressive program for rebuilding the festival. It seeks a new advisory governing board, new festival directors, a marketing plan, a quarterly newsletter, updated Web site and evaluation of the event in the first year.

By the fifth year, the plan calls for having 99 festival directors, hiring of paid staff, establishing an endowment fund and ongoing fundraising.