Relevance. Responsiveness. Relationships. Any community foundation working in arts and culture wants more of each. The San Diego Foundation grows these assets through its Arts & Culture Working Group.

It’s an approach adopted in 2003 to connect community members to community foundation initiatives. Through this collaboration with volunteers, The San Diego Foundation can better address community and donor needs, be a more effective grantmaker, connect to new donors, and establish a stronger voice for local arts and culture.

Plugged-in players

The Working Group consists of community leaders with demonstrated expertise in a number of areas including higher education, business, arts administration, arts management consulting, finance and philanthropy. Members are approved by the Board of Governors’ Executive Committee and serve for three consecutive three-year terms, making service on the Working Group a significant long-term commitment. The Working Group makes grant recommendations to the Board. In addition, its members recommend policy, conduct grantee site visits, attend programs and events of local arts and culture organizations and guide fundraising strategies—although they have no “give or get” fundraising quotas. Sub-committees with additional members from the community share the workload and insure that decision-making is transparent and open.

Felicia Shaw, Director of Arts & Culture at The Foundation, reports that the Working Group strategy is effective because of each member’s commitment to a singular purpose—improving quality of life in the San Diego region. “By stripping away all other agendas, Working Group members come to the table with a shared belief that arts and culture is as critical to our quality of life as clean air, safe streets and open green spaces. Their leadership helps everyone at the Foundation address critical community needs—with arts and culture at the top of our list of priorities.”

A unique arts landscape

The Working Group formed its identity through a strategic planning process that began with a situation assessment: San Diego is a large county, geographically spread out, and with the distinction of being the largest border crossing to Mexico. The arts and culture community is broad and diverse, made up of approximately 300 groups, from established institutions such as The Old Globe Theatre and San Diego Opera to small grassroots community groups like the Playwrights Project and Eveoke Dance Theatre.  And this region shows up on much larger maps drawn in the arts and culture world:

• Balboa Park is the largest collection of museums in the country outside of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
• San Diego theatre sends more plays to Broadway than other city outside of London and Chicago.
• San Diego is the only city on the West Coast to support eight major professional stages for three resident theaters.

A 2000 study by Americans for the Arts charted arts and culture as a $326M industry in the region. Cultural tourism is a major ingredient in this mix—people come to San Diego for the sun, surf and the world famous San Diego Zoo, as well as for a number of arts offerings.

Both the city and county government provide financial support for the arts, although with no county-wide arts council serving San Diego, The Foundation comes closest to providing leadership in arts for the entire region.

A compelling vision

With findings derived from an extensive external assessment and evaluation of the Foundation’s assets and opportunities related to arts and culture, the Working Group developed a sweeping vision: To galvanize the San Diego community around enhanced arts and culture and to ensure that the San Diego region has all the resources to become a nationally-competitive arts and culture center.

This assessment process yielded a number of strategies resulting in the launch of a new initiative, Art Works for San Diego. Grounded in the belief that arts and culture are powerful tools for community revitalization and civic engagement, this multi-faceted initiative includes the following components:

• Grantmaking – Funding a 12-month planning process (Phase I) and multiple-year implementation process (Phase II) for a limited number of nonprofit organizations and their arts and culture-focused projects
• Art Works! Academy – Ongoing training program for grantees and other select participants in principles of project planning, focusing on arts-based community development and civic engagement
• Advocacy – Strategic effort to educate community members about the value of arts and culture to San Diego’s quality of life, resulting in increased funding to nonprofit arts and culture organizations and to the Foundation’s Fund for the Common Good. Current focus is on arts education
• Donor Engagement and Education – Connect donors more deeply with arts and culture community through “high touch” activities, such as donor caravans, behind-the-scenes events and intimate donor dinners with artists as hosts
• Endow the Arts –“Drive to 25″ – Major fundraising campaign that seeks to establish a permanent fund for arts and culture at The San Diego Foundation to be used to sustain the initiatives of the Arts and Culture Working Group, including: grantmaking, outreach and capacity building activities. Currently, in quiet stage of campaign to test the feasibility of a $25 million fundraising goal by 2011

The San Diego Arts & Culture Working Group is supported by Communities Advancing the Arts, a major funding initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.

A bigger table means room for more people. Sacramento Region Community Foundation is expanding the table—virtually—with a blog aimed at encouraging conversation about local arts. It’s at advancesacarts.blogspot.com, and it supports multiple gatherings that are taking place around a single question: What’s the best way to bring new, long-term resources to arts organizations in Sacramento?

The first of these sessions drew more than 35 of the region’s most influential and passionate supporters of the arts. The second involved leaders from more than 20 local arts organizations. Highlights of both sessions are reported on the blog, which invites additional input from community members.

Information, ideas and insights generated will fuel the work of an Arts Advisory Committee this summer; in turn leading to a new round of grantmaking in the fall. “We wanted to capture knowledge in real time,” said Priscilla Enriquez, the Community Foundation’s Chief Giving Officer, and creator of the blog.

And the blog will play an ongoing role—helping the foundation and community track progress and keep an open line of communication.

Check out this site and register for automatic updates at advancesacarts.blogspot.com.

This project was launched through Communities Advancing the Arts, a major funding initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.

What should community foundations consider before entering the arts arena? Plenty. That’s the word from more than 30 program, donor services, and communications pros representing ten community foundations—each with multi-year involvement in Irvine’s Communities Advancing the Arts initiative. They represent a wealth of successes, lessons learned, and continued passion for the work. And they shared their responses to this question at a 2007 initiative convening.

So if your community foundation is new to the world of arts, you can take note of these tips from your been-there-doing-that colleagues.

• Build an internal partnership across community foundation program, donor services, and communications people—start here and keep it together every step of the way
• Bring a learning mindset to the process, and plan to adapt as you go
• Gain up-front buy-in from your arts council as well as arts nonprofits, not to mention your community foundation board and staff; help all understand that this is a long-haul commitment, including a commitment of resources
• Inform your planning with state and national research (some great sources are located in the “Links” to the left on this page)
• Assess the arts environment, including its strengths, needs and capacities; uncover the “connective tissue” in your arts sector by knowing, studying and understanding the actors
• Conduct research and assess data; be sure to examine the intersecting needs of community, arts nonprofits, and artists
• Recognize critical local issues, which may include arts access and cultural participation, policy and public funding, arts education, nonprofit sustainability, and nurturing the next generation of artists
• Communicate a vision for the arts community; create this vision with key stakeholders
• Establish and convey clear goals and expectations
• Employ all available assets: your staff and board, your role as convener, your credibility, your relationships, etc.
• Leverage existing resources (e.g., a local nonprofit advancement center) as well as channels and events that provide access to new relationships
• Support self discovery of the need for capacity building by nonprofits; invest in this capacity through technical assistance
• Pick your consultants carefully: the right researchers, facilitators, and planners make a huge difference
• Connect your case to a prosperity model; this is about communities advancing through arts
• Combine the interests of donors, “pillar” arts organizations, grassroots arts organizations and the community foundation
• Engage donors: many types, in many ways, at many points; time the optimal moment for initial involvement, which may be in the planning and research phase
• Lead through advocacy; including getting in the “ask” business (e.g., get your CEO out front asking the community to support arts)
• Demonstrate tangible progress—create and conduct programs that illustrate you are for real, and don’t run away from community conversations about the value and/or definition of art

Start by taking stock

Of course the first step is to assess your organization’s own capacity and readiness to contribute to a vital arts sector as part of a vibrant community.

To sum it up, the voice of experience says go forward with your eyes open, and enjoy the journey. It’s a rewarding one for artists, art agencies, arts donors, and all community members—including the community foundation!

This above content was generated through participants in Communities Advancing the Arts, a major funding initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.

“I am raising my son differently because of our work in the arts.” Shelley Hoss, President of the Orange County Community Foundation, is taking her organization’s newfound role in the arts personally. The story begins in the mid-1990s, when Shelley’s team recognized that arts represented “a gap in both our knowledge base and our role in this county. Living up to our responsibility to serve donors and community meant building more knowledge, relationships and value in the arts arena.” Three years into Communities Advancing the Arts, this sense of responsibility morphed into genuine passion. Says Shelley, “I have become a convert to the critical role of the arts in a healthy community, and for healthy individuals. Art is not an add-on or a bonus or something to do if you can get to it. It’s a key part of quality of life, which is what we are all about.”

Todd Hanson, Vice President for Donor Relations and Programs, is a believer as well. “Prior to this initiative, we would not have said much about the importance of the arts when talking with donors. Now, when a donor wants to know about community needs, we add arts to the mix, and we do it without detracting from any other area of community need.”

A fragmented arts scene

Orange County is home to nearly 500 arts organizations. Fewer than 20 are big players with more than $1 million in revenue; well over 400 are small organizations with revenue of less than $99,000. Arts venues, like the population, are dispersed throughout this urban county. A centralized art district does not exist, so attracting audiences is a challenge, and there is limited awareness of Orange County’s rich arts programming and offerings.

The community foundation saw the need to know more about the arts landscape before attempting to engage donors in this arena. It took action, conducting research with Arts Orange County to better understand local attitudes.

Opening eyes

Released in 2006, the research report made it clear that Orange County residents care about the arts:

• Sixty-four percent of residents (and/or their immediate family members) actively create or participate in the arts.
• Seventy-five percent of local arts organizations were founded in the last 35 years.
• Ninety-eight percent of residents agree that arts are critical for the education and development of children.

“This research sent us in a whole different direction,” says Shelley Hoss. The community foundation had begun with an assumption that it would be building a case for more arts giving among its traditional donor base. The effect of the research was revolutionary, Shelley reports. “It caused us to see that our work is about bringing arts to all the people of Orange County. It’s about drawing the entire spectrum of our community into a pipeline to generate support for arts.”

Going deep

This new view led to strategies for building infrastructure that could support this pipeline. Key ingredients include:

• A working partnership with Arts Orange County, and an ongoing commitment to help this local arts council become stronger and more sustainable
• An increased grantmaking emphasis, with a record level of $2.4 million in arts support in 2007
• Intentional support for small arts nonprofits, including using Irvine regranting funds to supply $250,000 across 25 organizations, and launching a series of customized technical assistance workshops designed to help these organizations move forward in a sustainable way.

More depth will be added in a next stage of work, featuring continuing partnership with Arts Orange County to:

• Engage local donors and raise a $1.2 million endowment for local arts programs
• Support local arts organizations’ efforts to build endowments
• Focus on youth, including grants and support for arts education in all schools across the county
• Launching a comprehensive website promoting Orange County arts events, venues, and organizations

It’s all part of a new awareness. According to Shelley, “Impact in arts lies largely with the arts organizations themselves. Their ability to plan, market, attract audience, deliver quality experiences… that’s what makes this sector go.”

Transformative power

Early into its learning curve, the community foundation saw the possibilities for impact. “We talked about it with lots of people and heard about these ideas from enough local arts organizations to see that all kinds of things were doable, if someone could get the ball rolling,” says Shelley. “There was plenty of pent-up demand, and we could help match it with supply.

“Our role of neutral convener really came to bear here. We were positioned nicely to say things other people were thinking, and to get groups talking who wouldn’t normally talk to each other.”

The community foundation has benefited enormously from this process. For example, Shelley and Todd now have regular contact and “warm, collegial relationships” with virtually all leaders of the 10 major arts organizations in the county; just three years ago they were zero for 10 in this arena. They also report a huge transformation in how the arts community views the community foundation. At the beginning, attitudes “probably ranged from being curious to thinking of us as a competitor,” says Shelley. Today the perception has completely shifted. The community foundation is seen as having a strong commitment to arts, and to having an impact for all arts organizations from small and new to big and mature.

Broader value

“The learning from this is transferable to other things we are doing,” says Todd Hanson. Of particular relevance is the community foundation’s broad interest in growing more field-of-interest funds, with appreciation that work building an arts endowment will set the stage for expansion to other program areas.

Shelley adds that, “Experience with arts has forced us to think about our messaging relative to other nonprofits. It affects how we describe the community foundation to grantees as well as to other nonprofits that we are not funding. Several of them are bigger than us, yet we can show how we add value to their work.”

“Working with the Orange County Community Foundation to cultivate local donor interest has helped to increase our long-term viability,” said Lawrence Rosenberg, Founder and Co-director of Anaheim Ballet, which promotes the practice of ballet among diverse youth in Orange County. “We’re proud of the work we do to introduce more than 30,000 students annually to ballet and performance art through community outreach, education, professional concerts and our online video series. Thanks to this help from the Orange County Community Foundation, we have a greater ability to raise awareness and positively impact the lives of more young people.”

Arts have been good for Orange County Community Foundation. And for Shelley’s family, “My husband and I are doing things in arts that never would have happened before this initiative. Our son was introduced to the symphony at age 2, and is in dance at age 4. It’s a whole new way of looking at life.”

Orange County Community Foundation is a participant in Communities Advancing the Arts, a major funding initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.

“The arts are common ground for community, a meeting ground,” says Melissa Kester, Arts Development Officer for Community Foundation Sonoma County. “It’s about expressing different points of view, understanding things in new ways, and coming together around shared experiences.” This insight opens a window for viewing the foundation’s partnership with its local arts sector.

“It is a relationship that began in 1989,” reports CEO Kay Marquet, “with an initial grant made possible through the National Endowment for the Arts. And it is a relationship that has blossomed in recent years through a creative, collaborative focus on the arts.”

Making connections

This focus involves connecting with individual artists, arts nonprofits (ranging from grassroots organizations to nationally recognized arts centers), donors and other funders who seek to build community through arts. At the center of this network is a strategic partnership between Community Foundation Sonoma County and the Arts Council of Sonoma County.

“The Arts Council is a wonderful resource to, and an effective champion for, this region’s diverse, dynamic arts sector,” adds Robert Judd, Community Foundation Sonoma County Vice President for Programs. “Together with a cadre of local arts organizations, we are able to present a united sector. This in turn allows us to invite a wider base of donors and public leaders to step forward—and add to an ever-greater vision for what arts can achieve in and for this community.”

Some big steps forward

Recent results of this approach have been encouraging, to say the least. Between 2005 and 2007, with support from The James Irvine Foundation’s Communities Advancing the Arts initiative, the Community Foundation and Arts Council worked with local leaders to establish a Santa Rosa Arts District in the center of the county’s largest city. Three popular, countywide projects were initiated as well: an Artist Awards program, Sculpture Sonoma, and Performance Sonoma.

As part of the Performance Sonoma festival, 12 local performing arts organizations put on productions related to the featured theme, Crossing Borders. In Healdsburg, The Imaginists Theatre Collective created an original production, “The Divide/La División,” which explored issues of immigration and the challenges in finding common ground between local immigrant Latinos and resident Anglos in the area. The bilingual production led to an opening in community dialogue around these challenges (view a video documentary on YouTube).

“Participating in Performance Sonoma allowed our company to explore issues that influence everyday life in our community,” said Brent Lindsay, The Imaginists’ Executive Director.

Community Foundation Sonoma County also launched an Artists Award as a way to raise the visibility of budding local visual artists. Six award winners selected by a panel of highly-regarded independent judges have received unrestricted grants of $5,000 each. In addition to the grant funds, the winning artists have enjoyed growing recognition within Sonoma County and beyond. For example, Seth Minor, a 2006 award winner, is commissioned to create public artwork for the City of Santa Rosa. Complementing these efforts to support local artists, the foundation also worked with Sonoma State University to conduct a series of public discussions for artists on navigating “the business” of the arts.

A growth agenda

Community Foundation Sonoma County and its partners aim to double the nearly $300,000 already raised to endow the Artists Award Fund, with the goal of expanding awards to include performing and literary artists. Near-term plans involve further engaging with the City of Santa Rosa around its newly-established Arts District—and working collaboratively with private donors and public officials to create a lasting and vibrant downtown arts area.

Also on the drawing board are plans to explore creating a signature festival that would invigorate local arts audiences and attract tourists to the region’s arts scene. And an exciting project is well underway, led by the Arts Council, to provide a centralized online portal for arts information and access throughout Sonoma County.

Lessons learned

What have Community Foundation leaders learned so far? Three major lessons stand out. For one, creating partnerships is worthwhile work—but takes time. “We probably underestimated this point as we got started on a more earnest approach to arts outreach three years ago,” says Melissa Kester, who also emphasizes the importance of carefully assessing and understanding the capacity of key partner organizations.

Second, deeper engagement with the arts sector—nonprofits, government, and donors—can be a model opportunity for community foundations to explore new ways of working. According to Paul DeMarco, Finance and Administration Vice President, “In many ways this program is serving as a prototype for our role in community leadership… providing us with new ways to interact with donors… and helping us demonstrate high levels of value through our work convening others.”

Third, and perhaps most important, says Kay Marquet, “We are proving that arts are as good for community as community is for arts.”

Community Foundation Sonoma County is a participant in Communities Advancing the Arts, a major funding initiative of The James Irvine Foundation.