Arts Administration & Leadership Development | Advocacy |Education
Diverse portfolio of work below.
CHEYENNE RAQUEL BOYNTON
PORTFOLIO
Fundraising & Event Planning
My career in Pensacola began at Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, where I quickly distinguished myself, winning Rookie of the Year and earning a promotion within my first year. I significantly increased volunteer engagement and streamlined fundraising efforts including helping increase federal funding by 120%. I also managed major community and fundraising events that raised over $350,000.
Now with the Pensacola Children’s Chorus, I have raised over 10% of our operating budget through the events I have planned. This is in addition to the substantial income from corporate sponsorships, individual donors, and grants I have secured.
During my time here, I have combatted the Florida Arts fundraising crisis (due to the gubernatorial veto of all State Arts and Culture Grants, resulting in an overnight 10% loss in our operating budget). Despite this loss, I grew our contributed income by over 20%
Arts Advocacy & Policy Leadership
As a board member of the Florida Cultural Alliance, Florida's statewide arts advocacy organization, I contribute to policy development, strategic planning, and advocacy efforts supporting the state's arts and cultural sector. In the aftermath of Florida's elimination of all state arts and culture grants and rewriting of grant processes, I played an active role in the statewide response, contributing to communications strategies, public messaging, grant form critiquing, and stakeholder engagement during this unprecedented crisis for Florida's cultural ecosystem.
I am an alumna of the Chorus America Choral Executive Leadership Academy (Class of 2025)—an intensive leadership development program for early-to-mid career choral leaders who have been marginalized because of race or ethnicity. The Academy builds C-suite administrative skills while addressing unique challenges leaders of color face navigating predominantly White institutions (PWIs). This training informs my work facilitating access and inclusion workshops for PWI nonprofits in Northwest Florida—particularly organizations serving communities of color. I guide institutions through developing culturally literate approaches to programming, service delivery, and community engagement, drawing on my lived experience as a Tejana arts leader who has operated successful, mindful programming in southern and rural communities and scholarly frameworks from my training in Ethnic Studies.
I also serve on the board of the Association of Fundraising Professionals' West Florida Chapter, where I was recently elected Chair of National Philanthropy Day, working to elevate philanthropic culture and strengthen professional development across the region.
My advocacy centers on cultural equity, sustainable arts funding, and policy frameworks supporting historically underrepresented communities, particularly Latinx & BIPOC artists and cultural workers in rural and Southern contexts.
While at Cara Mía Theatre, I wrote and graphically-designed Created six comprehensive bilingual study guides (Teacher's Guides and Student Workbooks) that are still in use today across Texas school districts and partner organizations. These resources, originally commissioned by Dallas Independent School District, integrate culturally responsive content with state learning objectives and have reached thousands of students across the U.S. and Latin America.
Study Guides
I have designed and taught lessons for students from 3 years old - adulthood.
During my positions with Cara Mía Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, and others, I was tasked with creating engaging lessons that taught the content and themes of various plays and repertoire while centering social and emotional learning.
As Manager of Education & Community Action at Cara Mía Theatre, I led a team of 20+ teaching artists while developing curriculum for workshops, residencies, and camps serving diverse communities including youth, adults with disabilities, and families.
Lesson Plans
Community Action
During my tenure at Cara Mía Theatre, I expanded programming reach by over 60% through strategic partnerships with schools, community organizations, and government agencies. I designed and facilitated community engagement initiatives including circles of care, post-performance dialogues, youth theatre nights, community panels, and intergenerational workshops serving historically underserved communities across the DFW Metroplex.
As line producer on multi-year projects including the Community Tour of *Your Healing is Killing Me* and the La Siembra Project, I cultivated relationships with cultural leaders and community partners that positioned Cara Mía's work within the broader Dallas arts ecosystem while honoring Latinx cultural traditions and centering equity in all programming decisions.
Throughout my career, I have used surveys and other collection methods to measure the success of various programs, needs of a community, and find areas for growth. During the pandemic, I frequently turned to data-driven programming to best serve a variety of communities and their needs through our work. I created and analyzed surveys from educators, parents, and neighborhoods to make decisions on what programs were needed and how they needed to be built and offered. Cara Mía’s virtual offerings, including our workshops, summer camps, and recorded plays that are still being used in Texas school districts today, are a result of my data-driven decision making and personal relationship to my community.
Now at the Pensacola Children’s Chorus, I work with our Artistic team to build quality surveys to meet the various needs of our organization. These surveys touch on key personal and academic goals. They are phrased in easy-to-understand ways that can be translated to important data-points that show how well we are doing and highlight our areas for growth. These vary from showing that 98% of our singers agree they feel like the Chorus is an environment they belong in to 96% agreeing that membership in PCC boosts their literacy. These data-points can be critical in the grant writing space and when speaking throughout the community. We have also developed surveys for volunteers, caregivers, and audience members. All getting good ROI and providing critical information for our organization. Additionally, I have streamlined and grown our demographic reporting, allowing us to promote an honest picture of our organization and who we serve. I believe that Strategic data collection is essential to effective advancement work and demonstrating community impact.
Data Collection
Graphic Design and Marketing
Throughout my career, I've developed comprehensive marketing and communications strategies to support organizational goals, from campaign planning to brand identity management. I design compelling visual materials and targeted communications that engage diverse stakeholders, manage digital presence across platforms, and create content that drives both earned and contributed revenue.
At Pensacola Children's Chorus, I supervise the Marketing & Communications Manager and provide strategic direction for organizational brand, messaging, and multi-platform campaigns. My work spans impact reporting, donor communications, and advocacy messaging—including leading communications response during Florida's 2024 arts funding crisis.
Technical proficiencies include: Canva, Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere), CMS platforms (Wix, SquareSpace, WordPress), CRM systems (Salesforce, Bloomerang, & Tessitura), and email marketing platforms (Constant Contact).
