Making the case that Boulder needs the Dairy
The Dairy Arts Center is easy to recognize as a Boulder landmark. Understanding everything happening inside it takes more work. Three theaters, visual art galleries, an independent cinema, rehearsal rooms, teaching spaces and arts organizations share a former milk-processing plant that now covers 42,000 square feet.
For the Dairy’s 2026 PEEK fundraiser, titled The Crystal Ball, guests needed to see the organization behind the familiar venue and understand what their donations helped sustain.
Rocket House Pictures created a short documentary that put the Dairy’s role in Boulder at the center of the fundraising appeal. The film premiered to a sold-out audience of 250 guests at the organization’s largest annual fundraising event, then became an asset the Dairy could continue using with donors, sponsors and community partners.
We hired the Rocket House Pictures team to create a short, inspiring organizational video for our complex arts nonprofit, to motivate donors at a fundraising event and beyond. Gio and Jennifer and their crew were wonderful collaborators throughout the process, quickly and thoroughly understood the passion points of the organization, and were able to distill who we are and what we do to the most resonant examples. Even from the first draft, we knew this was something special. We couldn’t be happier with the end result, and if you’re in the market for video storytelling for your organization, I encourage you to give them a call! --- Jen Clements, Deputy Director, Dairy Arts Center
The challenge: donors knew the building, but not always the full story
People often encounter the Dairy through one part of its work. Someone may attend a play, see an independent film, visit a gallery or enroll in a class. That experience does not automatically reveal the staff, facilities and fundraising needed to keep the larger organization running.
The Dairy reports that more than 100 nonprofit arts organizations depend on it as a venue, creative home and source of professional infrastructure. Its history and current overview also records more than 200,000 visitors each year, hundreds of live events and over 700 film screenings. Downtown Boulder independently identifies the Dairy as the city’s largest multidisciplinary arts center and confirms the range of facilities inside the building. A detailed Boulder Weekly profile reported that the Dairy works with roughly 150 organizations and artists, sometimes turns down three events in a week because space is unavailable and functions as what one local theater leader called Boulder’s “Grand Central Station of performing arts.”
Ticket sales and rentals provide earned revenue, but they do not pay for every part of that work. The Dairy’s Colorado Gives profile explains that donations support accessible arts experiences for people ranging from young students to established performers. Its support page outlines the annual fund, recurring gifts, corporate and foundation support and other ways donors help fund the organization.
The challenge was finding one idea that could hold all those facts together.
The fundraising film had to explain the Dairy’s value in a few minutes, hold the attention of a live audience and lead naturally into an appeal. A catalogue of programs would have been accurate but difficult to remember. The stronger case was personal: Boulder’s creative life would lose something essential without the Dairy.
The approach: begin with what the community stands to lose
Our work began with conversations involving Dairy staff, artists, educators and community members. We listened for the language people used when they described the organization without a script.
Again and again, participants described the Dairy as a place where artists can take a chance, audiences can discover unfamiliar work and organizations can access facilities they could not build or operate alone. That became the documentary’s central thread.
This approach follows a principle from our guide to nonprofit video storytelling: a film needs a focused human question before it needs a list of messages. In this case, the question was simple. What would Boulder lose if the Dairy were gone?
The answer gave the film stakes. It also allowed interviewees to describe the organization from direct experience instead of repeating institutional language.
Production: film the Dairy as an ecosystem
The interviews provided the argument, but the building and the people using it supplied the evidence. Our crew filmed inside performance spaces, galleries and working areas throughout the Dairy. The footage showed different disciplines operating under one roof and gave viewers a sense of the activity their donations support.
The edit moved between individual testimony and daily life inside the center. That balance kept the film from becoming a sequence of talking heads or a fast tour of rooms. Each visual supported a specific part of the fundraising case.
Rocket House Pictures handled story development, interviews, cinematography, location sound, editing, music, color and delivery. Our documentary production approach helped preserve the speakers’ natural language while shaping their interviews into a concise event film. The project also drew on our broader video production process, which carries a project from planning through final delivery.
The solution: a mini-documentary made for the moment before the appeal
The finished film presents the Dairy as a shared piece of Boulder’s cultural infrastructure. Artists, staff and community members explain why the organization matters, while footage from inside the building shows the range of people and work connected to it.
The closing idea is direct: supporting the Dairy means supporting the artists, young people, educators, presenters and audiences who rely on it.
That message served the immediate needs of The Crystal Ball, but the film was designed for continued use. The Dairy can share it in donor meetings, sponsorship presentations, grant conversations, community outreach and future fundraising campaigns.
The impact: a sold-out room and an appeal that surpassed its goal
The Dairy’s official event page confirms that the April 23, 2026 fundraiser sold out. The event brought together 250 guests, with tickets priced at $175 and additional opportunities to donate or sponsor the evening. The money raised directly supported the Dairy’s performing, cinematic, and visual arts mission.
The film gave everyone in the room the same introduction to the organization before the fundraising appeal. Through the people who create, present, and experience the Dairy’s programs, guests could see what their contributions would support.
During the live appeal, the donation total climbed quickly and surpassed the stated goal by a wide margin. The Dairy has not yet released the final figure, but we were there and watched the total nearly double the goal. We will update this case study when the confirmed amount becomes available.
Created around the Dairy’s broader mission, the film can continue serving as a case for support after the event. It gives the organization a concise way to introduce its work to future donors, sponsors, community partners, and audiences.
The client’s voice
Jen Clements’ response points to the hardest part of the assignment: compression. The production team had to learn a complex organization, identify its strongest case for support and express that case in a few minutes.
Her review also confirms that the film was intended to work beyond the room where it premiered. That longer use matters because the cost of production can support several stages of donor communication instead of ending with one event.
What this project shows about fundraising films
A fundraising film is strongest when the audience understands what is at stake before hearing the request. For the Dairy, the central stake was Boulder’s ability to support artists and audiences across many disciplines in one shared place.
The project also shows why results need context. The film premiered to a sold-out room, immediately preceded the donation appeal and was part of an evening that exceeded its fundraising goal. The exact total should be added once the Dairy confirms it.
Rocket House Pictures creates fundraising videos for nonprofits, along with nonprofit films, mini-documentaries and campaign content. Learn more about our team, or contact Rocket House Pictures to discuss a donor film or fundraising campaign.
