The River Music Experience has given hundreds of musicians a forum to share their art with others, anchored a major corner of downtown Davenport and hosted public meetings, political debates and other community events.

Since its opening five years ago, the RME has relied on grants, gifts and occasionally the management skills of DavenportOne to make up for expenses that vastly outpace revenues.

Deficits in the million-dollar range — $1.2 million in the red in the most recent nonprofit form 990 filing from 2006 — spurred the evolution of the RME from a museum with mostly static displays to a live music venue with multiple stages.

Tom Swanson, who has worked at the RME for three years and took over as general manager in early 2008, said getting leaner in terms of staffing and getting creative in bringing in money is helping ease the burden on donors.

“The RME is not dissimilar from other nonprofits in the fact we all face the same challenges,” he said. “Operating with deficits is the nature of the beast. You try to make up for that by doing things that generate revenue.”

Operating Mojo’s, a cafe featuring local open mic performers, and opening the Redstone Room upstairs as an intimate concert venue that has attracted national acts are two of those revenue generators. Swanson said the RME also averages around 20 private events a month, including weddings, business meetings and parties.

The $1.2 million deficit from 2006 has been reduced to between $250,000 and $300,000 for 2008-09, Swanson said. He noted that 2006 was the last year the RME was solely responsible for putting on the River Roots Live performance, which was a big expense, and that the Redstone Room had not yet been opened and generating revenue.

A common misconception about the RME’s finances, Swanson and others said, is a persistent belief that it receives subsidies from either the city or DavenportOne.

“We give nothing to the RME, not a penny,” said Alan Guard, Davenport’s finance director. “The city does not contribute anything toward the operation, maintenance or debt service of the building whatsoever.”

In 2007, after then-RME director Lon Bozarth resigned, DavenportOne did step forward and use its staff to manage the museum for nearly a year, said Betsy Brandsgard, an executive vice president with DavenportOne and an RME board member. However, she noted, the salary of the interim director was paid through the organization’s downtown partnership and not out of the partially city-funded D1 Initiative money.

Swanson said the RME is primarily supported by gifts from charitable organizations such as the Bechtel Trusts and grants from the Riverboat Development Authority and the Scott County Regional Authority.

Brandsgard said as far as DavenportOne is concerned, there is no question that the RME serves a vital nonprofit purpose.

“It has brought thousands of children and families into downtown during the day over the years and has certainly added a lot to the nightlife of Davenport,” she said. “It offers music lessons, scholarships and allowing children to participate in programs they otherwise might not have access to. We continue to see the facility used more and more frequently by a wider and wider group of constituents.”

Swanson said 70 percent of the visitors to the RME are Quad-City residents. While he wants to see the number of local visitors remain high, he’s hopeful some of the new initiatives — including the high-profile acts booked by the Redstone Room — will begin attracting an even wider audience. That, in turn, could help ramp up revenue.

“We’ve done a good job of righting the ship, and we need to continue building on that and work on becoming more and more self-sustaining,” he said. “The idea and the goal here is to open the eyes of people in the community and beyond and show that this area can be a viable scene for live music.”