Helping arts donors feel at home…

House concerts raise money and build relationships in Mendocino County. Supporting arts in schools is a hot topic in communities everywhere, especially as economic woes continue to affect school budgets. The Community Foundation of Mendocino County took on this issue in a high-touch way, organizing a series of intimate concerts hosted in the homes of [...]

Small community foundation. Big arts gift.

Placer Community Foundation receives $1 million for arts Two things might be essential for younger or smaller community foundations that seek to attract the attention—and the resources—of major arts donors. One is a visible commitment to arts and culture. The other is the courage to dream big. These are the takeaways from a homegrown arts [...]

New catalog highlights Fellowships for Visual Artists

California Community Foundation is changing the artistic face of Los Angeles For a winning example of how a community foundation supports individual artists, look to L.A.  Since 1988 the California Community Foundation has awarded nearly $1 million to 157 emerging and midcareer artists through its Fellowships for Visual Artists.

Going deeper: New study of thousands of arts donors uncovers values and reasons to give

A study by the East Bay Community Foundation and The San Francisco Foundation chronicles how artists and small- to mid-size arts groups, typically led by artists, found creative ways to involve new donors to support new work. It also uncovers these donors’ motivations to give. Its lessons can help community foundations everywhere advance strategies supporting the success of artists and artist-driven organizations.

Looking for a good number of new donors to the arts? Try 3,120.

Bay Area Fund For Artists Matching Commissions Program (originally posted April 21, 2008, updated December 7, 2010) Community foundations take heart: new arts donors are out there. They may just be waiting to be asked—by the artists themselves! A pilot program launched in 2004 challenged smaller arts nonprofits in and around Oakland to attract individual [...]

Last in a series on public policy, arts and community foundations…

A Capitol event: connecting with elected officials California’s nonprofit arts organizations add $5.4 billion to the state’s economy annually, creating more than 160,000 jobs and generating nearly $300 million in state and local taxes. This message that arts are part of the solution—and part of the creative economy— set the stage for a spring legislative [...]

Second in a series on public policy, arts and community foundations…

A mayor can make a world of difference San Francisco Mayor Christopher’s action to enact a hotel tax to support the arts nearly 50 years ago is mirrored in Sacramento today via Mayor Kevin Johnson. Motivated by his life-long respect for the arts, and inspired by a community foundation event featuring Michael Kaiser, president of [...]

First in a series on public policy, arts and community foundations…

Pursuing public policies that advance the arts in California communities. What does a community foundation have to do with government policies and spending that support the arts? Any number of things, it seems. That is the finding from a lively two days spent sharing knowledge among a group of ten community foundations working to generate [...]

The “ripple effect”: Building shared responsibility for the arts

Guest post by Margy Waller, Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund Many of us have spent years searching for the strongest possible message and the best case on which to build support for the arts. Yet, the messages we have used to create dialogue in communities across the country have not yielded the broad sense of shared [...]

Giving hope and help to arts leaders in the midst of a deep recession…

Embracing dynamic adaptability in the Bay Area Is there anything special arts funders can do to help nonprofits and artists deal with the continued effects of a down economy? Something beyond continued funding opportunities, capacity building, and technical support?