GIA News's Blog

(4-20-10) "A Cargill heiress' massive fortune is about to change the face of Minnesota philanthropy," reports Jean Hopfensperger in the Star Tribune. Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies will be headquartered in Eden Prairie and will employ a staff of up to 75.

(4-20-10) Georgia Arts supporters demonstrate outside the capitol yesterday. The same budget that eliminates the Arts Council includes $10 million for the College Football Hall of Fame.

(4-19-10) GIA Member Susan Coliton (Paul G. Allen Family Foundation) and Patricia A. Wasley (Dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington) in an Op-Ed in the Seattle Times...

"OUR state's economy thrives on innovation. That innovation exists in many sectors — from engineers and designers, to writers and architects — and all of them depend on creative-thinking skills in order to succeed.

(4-19-10) America's nonprofits expect that 2010 will be financially more difficult or as difficult as 2009, according to a survey released by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). The survey of more than 1,300 nonprofit leaders in markets nationwide also found strong evidence of the dramatic and creative steps that organizations are taking in order to maintain – and even expand – service delivery to meet increased demand during this time of continued economic uncertainty.

For full results, click below.

(4-19-10) The Kresge Foundation announces today a new national strategy for its Arts and Culture Program that fosters the long-term financial stability of arts and cultural organizations, supports artists’ services, and helps to integrate arts and culture institutions and activities into effective community building. Grantmaking is focused in three areas: Institutional Capitalization, Artists’ Support Services and Arts and Community Building.

(4-16-10) On April 14, Russell Sullivan, staff director for the Senate Finance Committee, spoke at a symposium hosted by Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law, "Philanthropy in the 21st Century: Should All Charities Be Created Equal?" Sullivan forecast the emergence of proposals to form "for-benefit corporations," agencies created for the public benefit with business structures falling somewhere between for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

(4-15-10) The Washington Post's Jacqueline Trescott provides a summary of this week's hearings before the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for the budgets of the NEA, the Smithsonian, and other government-funded cultural agencies. Her description of the back and forth creates a very nuanced impression of the discussion, as well as the personalities in the room. Read it here.

(4-14-10) GIA Board member John Killacky, one of the Bay Area's most vigorous champions of the arts will announce today that he is leaving the Bay Area to oversee a respected arts center in Vermont.

(4-14-10) In an interview with Alliance Magazine, Geraldine Kunstadter of the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation discusses her grantmaking practices, while urging larger foundations to take risks and pare down assessment practices. Kunstadter, who regularly visits her foundation's grant recipients (16 in the U.S. and abroad per annum), has a very personal relationship to the granting process and offers a unique perspective on the funder-grantee dynamic: "If you trust people enough to give them money, you have to trust that they know best how to spend it."

(4-13-10) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave a speech at the Arts Education Partnership National Forum on Friday, April 9. A full transcript is now online. Some highlights: