The Houston Symphony League is Honored to Receive Two National Awards!
For the 2024-2025 season, the Houston Symphony League won two Gold Awards of Excellence which is the highest award that the League of America Orchestras (LAO) bestows on volunteer organizations on a national scale. These awards are given through the Volunteer Council of LAO who provides support and professional development to Symphony volunteer organizations. These Gold Awards of Excellence honor best-in-class programs and initiatives that have significantly impacted their orchestras. Only six to eight awards are given each year across the nation.
The Houston Symphony League won two Gold Awards of Excellence
- Driving Impact Through Sponsorships
- Driving Revenue Through Membership Dues
The project “Driving Impact Through Sponsorships” was led by Heidi Rockecharlie who was the League President. The goals of the project were to reduce League expenses for six key events, increase the League’s annual contribution to the Houston Symphony, and increase awareness of the Houston Symphony and the Houston Symphony League in the Houston business community. Cash sponsorships amounted to $15,000 – $5,000 each for three of the events. In-kind donations from sponsoring businesses for two additional events generated $26,800 for a total of $41,800 in sponsorship support.
The project “Driving Revenue Through Membership Dues” was led by Heidi Rockecharlie and Leslie Nossaman who was League Co-Membership Chair and President-Elect. In our 89-year history, the League has never had benefits related to different levels of membership dues. Three changes were made to encourage members to renew or join at a higher level. First, benefits were added to the higher levels of $250 and above while maintaining our base membership level of $100 to remain competitive with other major arts organizations. Second, a $2000 level was added to a top level to “stretch” the dues up a major level to see if we could get more higher-level dues especially at the $1000 level. Third, the membership levels were renamed to sound more fun and attractive with a musical theme. This resulted in an increase in higher level dues from 30 to 50 higher levels and an increase in funds of $14,250. So, for minimal upfront effort we were able to increase our dues not only for this project year but in a way that would translate into future years’ growth from membership dues. For example, the 2025-2026 season had 64 higher level dues with $14,000 additional revenue over the previous year.
These awards are presented at the LAO Conference each year which is held across the nation. This year the LAO Conference took place in Baltimore, Maryland June 1-3, 2026. Leslie Nossaman, Immediate Past President at the time, presented both projects and accepted the awards on behalf of the League. Gary Ginstling, Executive Director and CEO of the Houston Symphony and Darlene Clark, Immediate Past President of the LAO Volunteer Council and HSL LAO Representative, were also in attendance at the awards ceremony.