Non-profit management

How MAP took concrete steps to enact greater racial equity in our grantmaking by incorporating Agile practices in our application processes

In this moment of upheaval, challenge, and resistance for our country, the phrase “speaking truth to power” has taken on a new urgency. Rarely asked amid the fervor pervading the corner offices and Twitter feeds of so many of our foundations and other civic institutions in recent months, however, is an important question: Where does our “truth” come from? How do we make judgments about truth in so subjective a field as arts and culture?

Two years ago, I had breakfast with a colleague — very nice guy who has helped build the social, or “impact,” investing sector. I shared my ideas about how to connect impact investing with the arts.

To him, investing in the arts meant buying a Picasso or a Van Gogh, collecting art objects. He agreed there was a market for fine art. But impact investing in the arts? He was dead against it.

As a new administration enters our nation’s White House, it is timely to reflect on the way that private philanthropy and public foundations joined forces to step into the gap when federal funding for the arts was dramatically reduced in the early 1990s.

What can you do when times are uncertain, and yet a clear opportunity to advance a collective agenda presents itself? Take action.

The League of American Orchestras’ upcoming national conference in Detroit falls just days before the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Detroit uprising, the largest urban disruption in America since the Civil War. According to Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) president Anne Parsons, the 1967 riot was the context for the orchestra’s fellowship program for African American musicians.

DataArts is a national nonprofit service organization that supports data-informed decision making in the arts and cultural sector primarily by providing access to high-quality financial and programmatic data collected through its flagship service, the Cultural Data Profile (CDP).

What do you believe the arts sector ought to look like twenty years from now? This is a question that every arts funder should be able to answer with a healthy amount of specificity. Whether arts funders choose to acknowledge it or not, much of what we do shapes the future of the field. This point is not intended to give arts funders more power than we actually have but to acknowledge reality. Funders’ actions — including when we choose not to act — prioritize, privilege, and capitalize particular models over others.

Many foundations are considering adding impact investing as a tool to complement their grantmaking activities. This article explains the practice generally and as it applies to funders working in the arts and culture sector. We will begin by introducing the terminology and motivation for impact investing, then provide an overview of the options, and conclude with examples from four foundations that have made impact investments in arts and culture.

Understanding the Language

In America, the arts are highly dependent on donations from individuals for funding. Once a new president is in office in 2017, Congress is expected to take up “tax reform” in a serious way.