The Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp.’s fundraising drive to pay for its annual Twilight Dance Series has raised $30,000 since pier officials announced two weeks ago that they were $92,000 short of the sum they need to put on the summer concerts.
The City Council last week contributed $35,000 to the effort from its discretionary fund, leaving pier officials in need of $27,000 to pay for a seven-concert series.
The fundraising drive was launched because corporate sponsorships that usually subsidize the event fell off by 80 percent in the past two years, officials said.
“We’re on our way, but we need more donations to save TDS,” Ben Franz-Knight, the PRC’s executive director, said in a news release.
Franz-Knight said the PRC needs to raise enough money to pay for the concert series by March 24.
The biggest donations to the PRC so far are a $20,000 gift from Pacific Park, the amusement park on the pier, and $5,000 from Naked Juice. By Thursday afternoon, individual donors had contributed more than $5,000, Franz Knight said.
Donations can be made at www.santamonicapier.org.
