The Egyptian Theatre, with the help of NIU students, is searching for $2.5 million in grants to keep their doors open year round.

The Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., opened Dec. 10, 1929, and currently hosts plays, musicals, films, fitness competitions, concerts and pageants. It is believed that the initial construction cost was $250,000, according to the Egyptian Theatre website.

The theatre can seat 1,400 and brings in around 30,000 people per year including former U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, said Alex Nerad, executive director of the Egyptian Theatre.

The non-profit theater is unable to maintain its operation during the summer months because the 86-year-old building lacks an air conditioning unit, Nerad said.

“We’ve invested, over the past 10 years, just over $2 million into the building on different projects,” Nerad said. “Everything from replacing the roof, to upgrading the fire alarm system, to upgrading lighting and sound and technologies associated with the stage.”

NIU students worked this past semester on trying to develop an initial plan to find grants for the theater said Alicia Schatteman, assistant professor of Nonprofit Management.

The initial step in grant writing is finding a match between the grant and the organization based on a variety of details, Schatteman said.

“[Certain organizations] fund arts and education, but don’t fund animals or the environment,” Schatteman said. “So doing that research of identifying the match and the organization, to me, is the first step.”

Prior to writing up the grant, the searching party must contact the granting organization to ensure they are interested in providing the grant to them, Schatteman said.

Schatteman said she assists NIU students with various projects pertaining to the Egyptian Theatre. This past fall semester her students identified three to five grants they thought the theatre could potentially qualify for.

“Now this semester we’ll have a group of students decide, in conjunction with the Egyptian Theatre, which grants have the most likelihood of funding,” Schatteman said. “Then they will work on actually putting the grant proposal together.”

As a result of the semester changing, a separate group of students will be working on the actual proposal of the grant, Schatteman said.

The first step for NIU students this semester will be to write a letter of inquiry to the grant-funding agency, Schatteman said.

“[The letter of inquiry] goes from the organization to the funding agency to determine if they do meet the funding requirements and ask any outstanding questions,” Schatteman said. “If we get positive feedback from the funder, then they will proceed with the full application.”

Once the letter of inquiry is submitted, the review process for the grant can take anywhere from three to nine months, Schatteman said.

“The review process for the grant will likely extend beyond the length of this particular course,” Schatteman said. “We won’t find out until the course is over if the grant has been reviewed and funding approved.”

Another necessity for the Egyptian Theatre to run is volunteers, Schatteman said.

“They are almost an entirely volunteer-run organization,” Schatteman said. “They rely on volunteers to clean the theater, to run the concession stands, to greet patrons at the door, so they are always in need of more volunteers to help out in that aspect.”

For NIU students, volunteering is extremely easy and can be completed by going to the Egyptian Theatre’s website, and adding yourself to their email club. Being a volunteer also comes with added perks such as attending the theatre’s show for free, said Nora Reeves, box office director of the Egyptian Theatre.

“If the general public wants to get involved, [then] attend shows,” Schatteman said. “But also consider writing donations to the theater to allow them to do free or very low cost programming to other community members like school groups and other folks who really need to have access to the theater but maybe can’t afford the full ticket price.”

To raise community awareness of the theater, NIU students and members of the community may go in to take a tour of the theater, for free, every Tuesday 2-6 p.m. and every Thursday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Reeves said.

“We get [former students] who come in and say, ‘Oh I went to school for four years at NIU, and I never knew the Egyptian was here,’” Reeves said. “It breaks my heart that people don’t take advantage of the [Egyptian Theatre]… Because if you don’t lose it, you’re going to end up losing it.”