MOST RECENT
The Arts Funders Forum recently held a virtual panel to discuss how museums can respond to calls for change and achieve greater social impact. Here are five compelling perspectives gleaned from the call’s esteemed participants.
The Orange County Museum of Art raised tens of millions in high-dollar donations for its new facility, which opened with great fanfare last month. It’s the latest example of the growing power of regional arts philanthropy.
In what may be the largest data-driven analysis of its kind, researchers crunched mountains of data from arts foundations’ digitized tax forms. They uncovered some telling numbers and disparities in giving.
Established by art collector David Teiger in 2008, this New York City-based foundation has stepped up activity over the past two years. We take a look at its history, funding priorities, and new grantmaking initiative.
Dr. Joan Weinstein is the director of the Getty Foundation, the grantmaking arm of the J. Paul Getty Trust. We recently checked in with her to discuss her biggest influences, the next big funding area in the museum space, and more.
Last year, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation launched an initiative to help museums adopt climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. The initial round drew enthusiastic interest, leading the funder to expand the program.
An increasing number of funders have been looking to spur social change through their arts funding, especially during the pandemic. Here are 11 examples we’ve been following.
Public funding for the arts has been dwindling for decades, so most arts nonprofits rely on a mix of earned income and philanthropy. Major donors play an outsized role in this area, often creating tensions within institutions.
The nonprofit All Our Kin has been working for 20 years to support family care educators. As the early care crisis grows, and Washington wrestles over alternatives, it’s an approach that deserves more philanthropic attention.
Eli Broad, who died last week, was a larger-than-life philanthropist. He tapped his fortune to bankroll ambitious initiatives in education, the arts and science. His turbo-charged giving offers both inspiration and cautionary lessons.
The St. Paul-based Jerome Foundation is allocating at least $8 million through 2025 to fill gaps as COVID-response funding dries up. We check in with president Ben Cameron about the foundation’s “commitment to the long game.”
The Joan Mitchell Foundation’s new fellowship provides artists with five years of unrestricted support. Deputy Director Kay Takeda fills us in on the program and how the pandemic underscored the need to back individual artists.
A year into the pandemic, critics argue that billionaire trustees haven’t provided museums with sufficient support, especially as their wealth has surged. We take a closer look at charged controversies at three major institutions.
The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation wants to help museums assess their environmental footprints and lower energy costs. Here’s how a unique cultural sector grantmaking initiative to tackle climate change came together.
A new initiative from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation broadens the definition of a “collecting organization” to include preserving narratives from historically underrepresented communities. Executive Director David Farren explains.
Facing strident opposition from mega-donors and the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Baltimore Museum of Art paused plans to auction work to seed an ambitious diversity initiative. The dispute tells an important story.
The pandemic, related closures and a decimated economy are placing tremendous financial strain on visual arts institutions. Even as they start to reopen on a limited basis, experts predict that many visual arts groups will not survive.
In May, Alice Walton’s Art Bridges Foundation launched the Bridge Ahead initiative to help museums navigate the pandemic. We check in with CEO Paul Provost on the initiative’s origins and the foundation’s unique model.
A third of museum directors are not confident they’ll be able to survive the next 16 months without additional financial relief. Alice Walton’s Bridge Ahead initiative is disbursing $5 million to endangered small and midsize institutions.
In recent years, critics have sounded off about how the wealthy and corporations use philanthropy to burnish their reputations. Now such concerns are intensifying—even as nonprofits need every donor they can find.
Forced closures and reduced attendance mean museums and performing arts groups are losing the bulk of their income. They’ll need to lean heavily on fundraising to survive—and get creative about it.
COVID-19 has pushed many small museums to the brink, amplifying the gap between the sector’s haves and have nots. Will mega-donors give less affluent organizations a second look or double-down on the pre-crisis status quo?
Returning a toxic gift or transferring the amount to a relevant charitable cause isn’t as common—or easy—as you’d think. Recent history shows that the reasons for not doing so range from the well-intentioned to the highly dubious.
The MacArthur Foundation recently awarded new grants based on the recommendations of a participatory grantmaking panel. We check in with program officer Geoffrey Banks to discuss lessons learned and areas for improvement.
As arts funders and nonprofits scramble to stem the impact of COVID-19, many are already looking beyond the pandemic to address glaring structural and operational weaknesses across the arts sector. What might the future hold?
Amid a historic wealth transfer, next-gen donors are poised to make their mark on the fast-changing world of arts philanthropy. But what, exactly, do they expect from institutions? And what will it really take to attract their funding?
Nonprofits are increasingly keen to show zero tolerance for personal misconduct. But news out of Manhattan paints an alarming picture of what can happen when an institution fails to loop in donors about major decisions.
The Ahmanson Foundation recently announced it will no longer buy art for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The split highlights the changing role of philanthropy as museums pivot to greater inclusion and curatorial diversity.
Working artists don’t just confront a lack of financial support; they’re also squeezed by rising real estate costs that make it harder to find studio space. The Joan Mitchell Foundation’s two-acre campus in New Orleans offers a respite.
Creative Capital, which raises every dollar that it grants out to artists, recently announced a $15 million initiative to sustain its operations over multiple years. The new strategy borrows ideas from the world of venture philanthropy.