A/B Testing Grants: Supporting Experimentation in Audience Building
A/B Testing Grants are an opportunity for OPERA America Professional Company Members to test strategies at their companies for retaining new-to-opera audiences.
These grants will encourage fieldwide learning: to incentivize experimentation, measure outcomes with A/B testing, and collectively identify which audience-building strategies are most effective.
A/B Testing Grants are intended to help companies activate the research findings of the Understanding Opera’s New Audiences report. They draw directly on the strategies found in the supplemental Engaging Opera’s New Audiences: A Resource Guide to Turn Research into Action.
The Engaging Opera’s New Audiences resource guide posits several prevailing hypotheses about how the original research findings could improve the retention of newcomers. These A/B Testing Grants invite you to implement projects that help the field test the validity of these propositions.
A/B Testing Grants: Supporting Experimentation in Audience Building are supported by the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation.
Grant Details
A/B Testing Grants will award a total of $300,000 across 8–12 awards of $5,000 to $50,000 to Professional Company Members in the United States and Canada that represent diversity of geography, budget size, repertory focus, and programming schedule. In the spirit of learning, granted projects will be selected to test a variety of possible interventions.
Eligibility: OPERA America’s Professional Company Members based in the United States and Canada can apply. See the Grant Guidelines for additional eligibility requirements.
Professional Company Member staff can log in to view grant guidelines and application deadlines. To learn about becoming a Professional Company Member, visit Organizational Membership.
A/B Testing Grants Informational Webinar
Thursday, May 15
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET
Webinar
Join OPERA America for a webinar introducing the new A/B Testing Grants: Supporting Experimentation in Audience Building on Thursday, May 15, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Hosted by Sarah K. Ivins, director of marketing and communications, and Jenny Fornoff, senior manager for grants, this session will provide an in-depth review of the grant guidelines and answer attendee questions. Supported by the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation, these grants empower opera companies to try something new in attracting and retaining new audiences.
The session will be led by OPERA America Staff:
- Jenny Fornoff, senior manager for grants, OPERA America
- Sarah K. Ivins, director of marketing and communications, OPERA America
Generously supported by the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Foundation.
OPERA America’s Professional Company Members based in the United States and Canada can apply. See the Guidelines for additional eligibility requirements.