The Kresge Foundation Board of Trustees approved an ambitious plan to invest $350 million by 2020 through the foundation’s Social Investment Practice, making clear that using a variety of investment tools is central to bringing enhanced opportunities to low-income people in America’s cities. The $350 million represents approximately 10 percent of the foundation’s corpus as of 2015. As the foundation expands its use of these types of investments, it will continue to align them with its six program areas — Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Health, Human Services and Community Development in Detroit — and make nearly $140 million in grants each year.
Steve's Blog
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From Jordan Levin at the Miami Herald:
As Miami’s arts season gears up with an overflowing slate of museum exhibits, ballet premieres, and more culture than any individual could ever absorb, it’s easy to take the city’s vibrant artistic life for granted. But only one generation ago, Miami was widely derided as a cultural wasteland. The dynamic creative scene that has become such an integral part of Miami’s character was created in an extraordinary — and extraordinarily unlikely — burst of cultural energy in the 1980s.
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From Phil Buchanan, writing for The Center for Effective Philanthropy:
CEP’s data and analysis confirm that foundations just can’t do certain things well without staff. This isn’t just a theory, and the story about Wilburforce Foundation I told in my last post isn’t some fluke. Analysis of CEP’s grantee survey demonstrates the link between foundation staffing and certain aspects of performance, as experienced by grantees.
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From Carol Motsinger at the Cincinnati Enquirer:
ArtsWave isn’t just an ATM for Cincinnati’s cultural institutions and efforts. Yes, the nonprofit supports over 100 local organizations with the nation’s oldest and largest community campaign for the arts: In 2015, some 42,000 donors raised $12.25 million. But, says president and CEO Alecia Kintner, the financial support is just the beginning. The new 10-year-plan for the almost 90-year-old organization is designed to ensure that this investment yields massive community-wide impact.
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Julia del Palacio and Alyssa Alpine, both from the City University of New York (CUNY), look at the ways the CUNY Dance Initiative works to enhance the cultural fabric of the college system (as well as the city) in the Reader article, The CUNY Dance Initiative: Building Bridges through Vacant Spaces.
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From Eileen Cunniffe, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:
Earlier this week, NPQ reported on a novel approach to civic engagement in Minneapolis: artist residencies in city planning departments, aimed at sparking fresh ideas for solving urban issues. Today, we note that the North Star State is also an innovator when it comes to integrating the arts into its rural communities. As reporter Kristin Tillotson says, “Across Minnesota, small towns and farms are busy putting the culture in agriculture.”
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Americans for the Arts will be focusing on issues of Arts Education on September 13-19. National Arts in Education week is a national celebration recognizing the arts importance to a well-rounded education. Designated by Congress in 2010, through House Resolution 275, the celebration is designated to bring attention of this cause to elected officials and educational decision makers across the country and to support equitable access to the arts for all students. National Arts in Education Week takes place annually during the week beginning with the second Sunday of September.
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Gary P. Steuer, President and CEO of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation (and a current member of the GIA Board of Directors) continues the discussion on effective altruism that is being held on the opinion pages of The Washington Post:
The effective altruists’ completely dispassionate assessment of “value” — lives saved per dollar — does not allow for a holistic approach to what makes a healthy society. If everybody gave as they did, we might well end up solving Third World crises at the expense of deepening crises right here at home. Rampant poverty and public health challenges in the United States would ultimately damage our local and national economies, diminishing our long-term capacity to help abroad. In addition, many of the things that are important to our souls — beauty, hope, joy, tolerance, inspiration — are fostered through the arts. They may be very hard to sufficiently measure in a world of purely data-driven philanthropy. This does not mean they are not important.
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From William Schambra, in The Washington Post:
Effective altruists seem to believe that the sole purpose of charity is to eliminate human suffering, as efficiently as is possible. But in fact, charity is far more than that: it is the heart and soul of human community, the way that people gather and minister to the emotional, spiritual, and material needs of their neighbors. By ignoring this role, the effective altruist movement threatens the very foundation of compassionate generosity.
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Enriching the Arts through International Cultural Exchange is an article written by Guiomar Ochoa and Michael Orlove from the National Endowment for the Arts, who look at the work being done through the NEA’s International Activities office.