Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' iconic Red Buckets are currently in theatres, fundraising for a variety of noble causes across the theatre community and beyond. The effort is headed by the non-profit's longtime Executive Director, Tom Viola, but this year's campaign will be Viola's last. He announced earlier this year that he will end his 36-year tenure with the group December 31.

As we get ever closer to Viola's bittersweet departure, we caught up with the theatrical luminary to find out what it's meant to lead Broadway Cares for more than three decades. Read what he had to say—including the sage advice he's offered to successor Danny Whitman—below.

What has changed most about Broadway Cares?
Tom Viola: Our grant-making outreach and ability to affect the delivery of real, substantial social services, both at the Entertainment Community Fund and through the more than 450 social service providers we fund annually through our National Grants Program. This reflects the expansion of our mission to those facing a variety of health challenges and lack of access to health care while always addressing the core of our grant-making: the ever-changing needs of people affected by HIV and living with AIDS. AIDS services are still the hook of our grant-making and will remain a steadfast component. But what was years ago about triage, end-of-life care, and funerals is now about access to health care, PrEP and well-being, the ability to live without stigma.

What constant has served you most over your tenure?
From the beginning it’s been imperative to be flexible and responsive to those across who make Broadway Cares’ fundraising, Red Bucket appeals and events possible—onstage, backstage, and behind the scenes. It’s crucial and requires an emotional connection that ultimately fuels the engine, year after year.

What's the biggest "lesson" you've learned that you will pass on to Danny Whitman, your successor?
Two things. First, it’s about making people feel appreciated, valued, and seen. And second, be ready to share the credit and take the blame.

Any goals or hopes that you weren't able to get to?
Not that I fret about. I’ve loved this job for 36 years because the days were never the same. It’s been about doing the next right thing, the next steps. We’ve moved decisively in response to what was happening at the moment. The need was always too great not to bear a bit of risk and tolerate some ambiguity.

We are an industry of people with musical theatre degrees, and many of us aren't performing. How did you transition from performer to nonprofit leader, and what are the ways that a BFA has come to serve you even in a different field?
Pursuing my musical theatre degree from CCM was about a time to grow up and begin to explore who I was beyond this desire I had to be an actor. To pay for school (and save money to move to NYC) I worked as a waiter while attending CCM. Both were a master class in multi-tasking! I learned how to support and take care of myself in ways that still serve me today. Once in NYC, I worked as an actor mostly out of town at regional and dinner theatre. But I didn’t enjoy auditioning, and you have to. And let’s be real, I was also one hell of a cater-waiter. I was also working as a literary agent’s assistant and began to forge a freelance writing career. As I had articles published, I noticed a much better quality of “break” as a writer than as an actor. I realized I hadn’t been to an audition in a year and didn’t miss it. But I loved Broadway, the theatre. The writing led me to being hired at Equity as special projects coordinator and then-President Colleen Dewhurst’s assistant, basically jobs that were about multi-tasking and writing. The Equity Fights AIDS committee was created in 1988 and assigned to me to staff. Colleen cleared the decks for Equity Fights AIDS to take root at Equity and in the community in first step kinds of ways. I was a ball of chaotic energy at the time looking for, needing attachment. I was very fortunate to find it. All my “almosts,” emotions and latent skills found a home, a family. And in very learn-as-you-go incremental steps, here we are.

What do you think makes Broadway and the theatre industry at large so effective at fundraising?
Because we work on a campus. We run into each other in real time at our jobs, on our jobs, looking for the next jobs. It creates a sense of family, and that familiarity hopefully creates empathy and compassion. We learn more about each other personally, which hopefully carries that empathy well beyond the paycheck.

Which celebrity that you've worked with on Broadway Cares events made you the most starstruck?
When first meeting someone, I always feel a bit reserved, wanting more to observe than rush in. If that’s starstruck, it’s the same feeling whether meeting Hugh Jackman and Vanessa Redgrave for the first time or talking with the cast of Broadway Bares at their first rehearsal.

What are you proudest of looking back on your tenure?
That we’re still here. We’ve morphed and changed along the way, and are still recognized for doing good work that extends and supports care in a way that creates connection.

What's next? What does Tom Viola's life look like post-Broadway Cares?
I really don’t know. I took to heart what I was reminded of in Hamilton when Washington understood the importance of “how to leave.” I want to create space for new experiences while always feeling happy about what was. Broadway Cares is primed to continue doing its essential good work, while I foster dogs, deliver meals, volunteer for progressive causes, hang out, and have some fun. No hard plans, just next steps.

Visit BroadwayCares.org.