15 September 2026
Fundraising with purpose
For ISTD member Penni Bubb, fundraising is about creating opportunities, removing barriers and ensuring that every young person has access to the benefits of dance and performing arts.
Over the last year, Penni and her team at Mushroom Theatre Company raised an impressive £27,000 for Equal People Performing Arts, the charity they established to fund and maintain their fully accessible performing arts building.
For Penni, fundraising is about much more than hitting a target. It is about ensuring children and young people can continue accessing opportunities that help them grow in confidence, develop new skills and feel part of a supportive community.
Rising to the challenge
"Fundraising is always a challenge," says Penni. "The cost of living makes money tight for families, so we have to find new ways of fundraising all the time."
Despite these challenges, the organisation continues to find creative ways to engage supporters and raise vital funds.
One of the standout moments from this year's fundraising efforts was purchasing four charity marathon places. Watching supporters with a personal connection to the organisation take part became one of Penni's most memorable moments of the year.
"The highlight was watching the runners, all of whom had a connection to us, run on the day. It was very humbling."
For Penni, moments like these demonstrate the strength of the community around the organisation and the shared belief in the value of inclusive performing arts.
Creating opportunities through dance
The £27,000 raised will have a direct impact on the opportunities available to participants.
"It enables us to carry on delivering a fully inclusive provision and community for young people to grow and blossom," says Penni. "Some of the money will also be used to subsidise our first dance residential trip."
The funding helps ensure the organisation can continue welcoming students with SEN into all of its classes while providing new experiences that might otherwise be out of reach.
For some young people, the benefits are life changing.
"One example would be a child with cerebral palsy who can now attend our holiday workshops because all of the studios and toilets are wheelchair accessible."
Stories like this highlight how fundraising can make a real difference, helping to remove practical barriers and making participation possible for more people.
The power of funding dance
Throughout her career, Penni has witnessed the impact dance, theatre and performing arts can have on young people's lives.
"Performing arts don't only add enrichment to lives," she says. "In our environment, we level the playing field so that students who would ordinarily be excluded from these activities can now be included alongside their peers."
She believes the performing arts help young people develop skills that extend far beyond the studio. 
"Performing arts offer people the chance to problem solve, experiment and experience their emotions, make decisions, develop confidence in their own convictions, work as a team towards a common goal, develop their individual creativity, ask questions, challenge the norm, grow and develop their personalities and conduct themselves in a confident manner."
"These are all transferable skills that should never be underestimated. Without the arts we cannot develop the thinkers and doers of the future."
This belief in the power of dance is also reflected in Penni’s connection with the ISTD. She says the Society provides “a framework” on which to base her dance teaching, while ISTD training, courses and guidance have helped her develop as a safe and reflective teacher with a greater understanding of child development.
For Penni, the value of membership also lies in having access to advice and being part of an organisation that continues to move forward, an approach that mirrors her own belief in thinking differently and making dance more accessible for everyone.
Penni's fundraising success is a reminder that when people come together to support dance and the arts, they can create opportunities that change lives.
