Although it’s the million-dollar donations that get headlines, cultural institutions in fact draw a significant proportion of their support from large networks of mid-level donors, whom the institutions reward with perks, such as preferential seating and access to artists, and carefully nurture as they, ideally, move up the ladder to higher levels of giving. A look at so-called patron programs around town offers insight into the sophisticated art of fund raising and donor cultivation.

Most patron programs begin at the level of a $1,500 or $2,500 annual donation. The specific perks vary, but at performing arts organizations, they include better seats and sometimes complimentary tickets, as well as close personal assistance from the patron office with ticket purchases, and, at higher levels, invitations to events such as opening night cast parties, or private concerts at the home of a board member. At museums, they may include curator talks, invitations to openings, and receptions with artists.

Patron offices are managed by a staff of usually two or more extremely courteous people, who help with ticket orders and in general provide a sense of personal attention and service. The vice president for planning and executive director of special campaigns at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lynn Stirrup, said that every time she has added staff to the patron desk — which has gone to four full-time employees from one since 1994 — she has seen returns in increased contributions.

In addition to the staff, patron groups are generally overseen by a couple of very social board members, who draw on their large networks of friends and acquaintances to bring people into the program. The Lincoln Center Theater patrons program, for instance, which last year raised $2 million, or 20% of LCT’s total donations, was run from the mid-1980s until her death in 2004 by Joan Cullman, a board member with many connections in the theater world and beyond. One of the two board members who currently runs the program, Ellen Katz, said that she originally joined the patrons group because of Cullman, whom she and her husband socialized with in East Hampton.

“She always had this cocktail party, and one thing led to the next and you got an invitation in the mail [to join the patron group], and lo and behold you joined,” Ms. Katz said. “You pretty much couldn’t get through her grasp.” Now Ms. Katz has perfected her own way of pitching the program, casually bringing it up in a variety of contexts, from dinner parties to rounds of golf, to conversations with other parents at school. “Whenever the subject of culture or activities in New York comes up, I always try to weave in my love of the theater and then say, ‘Oh, have you seen this latest production at Lincoln Center?'” she said. “If they seem interested — because I don’t like to push — I say, ‘Let me send you an invitation’ … On occasion, I’ve had dinners at my home for 20 people and then taken them all to the theater.”

The other LCT board member who manages the program, Daryl Roth, said the services of the patron office take the hassle out of coming to the theater. “It’s the ease, the hassle-free ability to get good seats, and have a real person helping you,” she said. “We have the most terrific patron staff. It’s small, but they are as gracious and helpful as you can imagine.”

For art forms such as opera, where a little education can increase enjoyment of a performance, patrons often are invited to hear the company’s music director talk about upcoming productions. New York City Opera, for instance, holds patron events on Monday evenings at a board member’s home, where the music director, George Manahan, will sit at the piano and talk about an opera, playing excerpts to illustrate his points. The next night, the patrons will go to the performance. Patrons at the $5,000 donation level are invited to day-long events that begin with a panel discussion with the director and designer of an opera, followed by lunch and then a dress rehearsal.

The Metropolitan Opera’s patron program is one of the older ones, having been founded in 1961. The entry level was recently raised to $2,000. The Met’s development director, Coralie Toevs, said that the numbers in the patrons program tend to swell when the economy is strong and the competition for tickets fierce, which means you have to be a donor to get the best seats. But even when ticket sales fall, as they did after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, people don’t tend to drop out of patron groups. They like the bond they’ve formed with the institution, and perhaps the connection they’ve made to a board member, and they don’t want to lose that.

An institution’s ultimate goal is to move people up the giving pyramid: Some small donors will become patrons, and some patrons will become major donors or trustees. The patron staff watches patrons closely to see who is particularly enthusiastic and should be cultivated. In the 1990s, Ms. Toevs recalled, when she ran the patron program, her research staff alerted her in their weekly reports that a woman named Ann Ziff had sent in $500 in response to a direct-mail campaign.

“We all got very excited and we decided we have to do a superduper cultivation evening for her, because there’s so much more money there,” Ms. Toevs said. She organized a pre-opera dinner with the board chairman, and then decided to bring in the diva Risë Stevens and her husband. “Ann was introduced to Risë Stevens, and she almost burst into tears. She said, ‘My mother sang with you in Prague in 1939.'” Ms. Toevs said. “They sat and held hands during the performance and became great friends.”

Mrs. Ziff was then invited to lunch, where she was asked to donate $25,000. The next day, she messengered over a check for $100,000. She is now a managing director on the board.