Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Jazz at Lincoln Center faces a major challenge as it turns 20 this year: how to lure deep-pocketed donors who don't embrace an art rooted in the blues and folk music of African-American slaves.

Major Wall Street firms aren't among the center's key funders. Only a handful of large companies, including Cadillac, Samsung Electronics America and Bank of America Corp., have become sponsors in the two years since the onetime concert series was transformed into the world's largest performance space for jazz. Today, Jazz at Lincoln Center is inviting high- ranking financial services executives to join its board and putting its famous artistic director, Wynton Marsalis, to use as a pitchman.

One issue holding back the organization is its youth. Jazz at Lincoln Center, founded in 1987, raised $12.6 million in its 2005-06 fiscal year. By comparison, the Museum of Modern Art, which has built ties to the city's wealthiest corporations and donors over its 78-year history, raised $239.2 million in 2005 with the help of a $100 million gift from philanthropist David Rockefeller Sr.

``It's hard to attract donors to a new institution,'' said Melissa Berman, chief executive officer of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which helps donors and foundations decide where to donate. ``They are also in an environment in which a lot of performing arts organizations are facing declining audiences and donor support.''

Rightful Place

Katherine Brown, executive director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, said one foundation she approached told her that jazz wasn't among its causes. ``You have to be prepared sometimes to hear that our organization doesn't match up with the desires of the donor,'' director of development Bret Silver said.

The music's origins haven't helped. Jazz, born in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century, hasn't had a philanthropic base, jazz historians say. Bars and basements served as the music's home instead of chandelier-adorned concert halls frequented by wealthy patrons.

``The educational process of creating philanthropy for jazz is new,'' said Beverly Sills, managing director of the Metropolitan Opera and former chairwoman of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The establishment of a regular jazz series at Lincoln Center in 1987 was a breakthrough because it expanded the center's membership from opera, ballet, theater and classical music. Sills, who helped raise the $1 million the jazz center needed to become a part of Lincoln Center, said jazz ``deserved its rightful place'' alongside other New York cultural institutions.

Jazz All Year

``Lincoln Center was made up of arts forms from Europe, and it was the first time an African-American art form became a member of the club,'' said Rob Gibson, Jazz at Lincoln Center's first director from 1991 to 2000, who now runs the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia.

In 1998, then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani designated Jazz at Lincoln Center as a cornerstone tenant of the 50-story Time Warner Center to be built at Columbus Circle. Six years later, the jazz center had a mortgage-free, 100,000-square-foot complex with three venues designed by architect Rafael Vinoly and sweeping views of Central Park.

Jazz at Lincoln Center had to raise $131 million to pay for its construction and then had to operate a behemoth facility. The challenges came quickly. The smallest venue, the 140-seat Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, had to book artists each night to live up to its billing as a club offering jazz 365 days a year. (It's now doing that). It had to hire a food service company to run a restaurant within Dizzy's. (On the menu: grilled salmon and New Orleans-style gumbo.)

Learning Curve

``We had become a performance venue manager and a landlord, and we're doing it better and better now, but in the beginning, we didn't know how to do it well,'' said Lisa Schiff, chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center's board of directors. ``You don't learn this overnight.''

Today, contributions cover about 44 percent of Jazz at Lincoln Center's $31 million operating budget, with the rest coming from ticket sales and about $11 million from renting out the three venues on nights when there is no Jazz at Lincoln Center programming, Chief Financial Officer Freda Gimpel said. The center also received $630,000 this fiscal year from the New York City government, Silver said. Ticket prices for concerts in the 310- to 550-seat Allen Room are $60; $30 to $120 in the 1,233-seat Frederick P. Rose Hall. At Dizzy's, sets are $30 at tables, with a $10 minimum for food and drink.

Gimpel said the Rose and Allen rooms are 70 percent booked for this fiscal year, a figure that she said is expected to increase 2 percent to 3 percent in 2007-08, based on current scheduling and outside commitments.

Wall Street Ties

Schiff, whose husband, David, is an investment banker, said they are using their contacts to lure financial services executives to the board and to attract new donors. She met recently appointed board member Richard Cashin, managing partner of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s buyout firm, through Harry Crosby, a partner at a New York hedge fund and a donor to the center.

Other board members with Wall Street ties include Paul Schorr IV, managing partner of Blackstone Group, the world's biggest buyout fund; Thomas H. Lee, chairman and chief executive officer of the private equity firm Lee Equity Partners LLC; Michael Price, president of MFP Investors; and Alan Cohn, Salomon Smith Barney's senior vice president of investments.

Charming Marsalis

This year, Jazz at Lincoln Center plans to host a series of dinners for corporate executives to meet board members and see a show. ``You really don't approach people cold. It's all done through relationships,'' Silver said. ``It's not going to do us any good to send a cold letter to the president of an investment bank. Once you realize that someone knows someone, it opens doors.''

Jazz at Lincoln Center also counts on Marsalis to charm potential donors. He was the key pitchman for the effort to raise money for the original construction. At the center's gala last November, the tuxedo-clad Marsalis spent most of his time working the crowd, going table to table to thank donors and corporate sponsors.

Marsalis, a Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter and composer, uses his music to woo donors. A performance and speech by the New Orleans native persuaded Samsung Electronics America executive Paul Kim to sign up as a sponsor.

``He totally changed my whole perspective toward jazz,'' said Kim, Samsung's senior manager of corporate planning. ``He's extremely dynamic and extremely passionate.''

Marsalis, 45, said Jazz at Lincoln Center needs a chance to build a donor base. ``There are a lot of people out there with money and influence,'' he said. ``It's just a matter of time before they start to understand the value of what we do.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at pcole3@Bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 30, 2007 10:37 EST