Are you tallking about your regular subscribers or sustaining membership (folks that give above and beyond the cost of the tickets). Our theater has sevearl levels of giving and, of course, you get the nicest benefits with the highest donation level. Ours does a special sneak preveiw party for the top level donors, along with offering special pins and other 'exculsive' parties during the year, as well as free tickets for the summer program (this is a professional theater company, not the community theater I work for).

We are, like you, currently trying to enhance our thank you prpgram to our patrons. We do have a catered opening for each show, thank you parties during the regular season and a gala banquet at the end of the season. We are also discussing doing something similar to the 'pin' giveaway that Sacramento Music Circus does. The hard part is thanking the patron without it becoming a financial burden for us.

Charlie

I've been with two theaters that have done pin give-aways.  you can either get someone on the Internet or locally to produce the pins.  In the first, we had four levels of giving with the last three offering a bronze, silver or gold pin, based upon level.  it was a small lapel pin with comedy/tragedy masks  on it.   The second theater on gives out pins to the top level of donating(it's gold with a 'p' on it).  By wearing the pin, it allows you into a private area where you can sit and wait for the house to open, as opposed to standing and milling about in the lobby.  We also offer coupons(xeroxed a different color every year) for a free drink - the number you get, again, depends upon the level of giving, from one to three per show.  They are good for soda, wine, coffee, tea and water.  It's an inexpensive way to create good will and it usually generates additional income at the concessions ("oh, since I'm getting a 'free' drink, I'll get a cookie too" types of sales, wherein that person might or might not have purchased anything at all).