In December 2001, the San Diego Symphony received a stunning email from Qualcomm chairman Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan. Their promise: to donate $100 million to the Southern California organization. When the Jacobses quickly followed up with a pledge of another $20 million, they created the largest single gift ever bestowed on a U.S. orchestra.

The news came as an enormous relief to the 97-year-old institution. At the end of 1996, beset by a lack of funds and a decline in attendance, it filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors, only to emerge by the end of 1997. Six years after receiving the donation, however, the group is still struggling with its finances. Sometimes, there is too much of a good thing.

One problem is that the $120 million has made the symphony look flush, and that has discouraged other big givers, says executive director Edward Gill. But the symphony didn’t get a lump sum. Instead, the Jacobses contribute $5 million each year to the San Diego Symphony’s endowment. The symphony receives around 6 percent in earnings on the principal each year; and to help with operating costs for the first decade, the Jacobses also write annual checks totaling $2 million. Those payments will stop when the couple has donated a total of $50 million to the endowment; then, when the Jacobses are deceased (they are both 74), their estate will bestow another $50 million.

On the upside, the cash influx has swelled the orchestra’s current endowment to $36 million, up from just $1 million in 2001, and helped double its annual budget, which has reached $16 million. Yet the total fund is about $100 million short of where Gill would like it to be for long-term stability. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, by comparison, has a $400 million endowment, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s is $233 million. In addition, fund-raising has been slow. Excluding the contributions from the Jacobses, the San Diego Symphony has raised less than $6 million for its endowment over the past six years. “We always need to explain to people that we don’t have $120 million in the bank to spend,” says Gill.

All of this has musical implications. When it comes to salaries, for example, the San Diego Symphony still can’t compete with the leading players. The current average salary for its musicians is $55,000, less than half of what other major organizations pay. Gill says that in 2006 he lost both his principal oboist and principal percussionist to other orchestras, in part because of salary issues. “So really, you know, we don’t have it as rosy as many people think,” he says.

How the San Diego Symphony has spent the money:
* Hired composer Marvin Hamlisch to conduct its Pops series
* Brought on 28 musicians
* Increased its marketing budget by more than a third, to $1.6 million
* Hired five new staffers, including a chief operating officer
* Expanded its educational-outreach program