Inside Philanthropy shares a blog post by Doug Stamm, CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust Fund, on his journey from being comfortable with his "socially liberal bona fides" to meaningfully involving himself and the foundation with the struggle for racial equity.
Grantmakers in the Arts
November 18, 2014 by Steve
Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, writing for Detroit Free Press:
This past June, I found myself sitting, awestruck, in the Rivera Court of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The court is named after Rivera for his breathtaking “Detroit Industry” frescoes that line the walls — a gift from Edsel Ford to the people of Detroit back in 1932.
November 17, 2014 by SuJ'n
Foundation Source released a new report, Trends in Private Foundation Investment, on Friday showing that private foundations have overall experienced a strong recovery (up 48%) in asset balances since 2008. The report also finds that endowment gains differ between mid-sized to large foundations ($10M+) and smaller foundations (less than $1M). Assets of the larger foundations showed strong gains while small foundations' assets remained flat likely due to differing distribution behaviors.
November 17, 2014 by Steve
GuideStar has a new post on its blog from Bo Garner, a CPA on the Not-for-Profit team at PBMares, LLP on the subject of simplifying financial statements. Reading it reminds us of the excellent Web Conference presented back in April of 2011 by Rodney Christopher of Nonprofit Finance Fund.
November 17, 2014 by Steve
Arlene Goldbard starts an ARTSblog salon on the topic of the aesthetics of social justice art:
The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers. James Baldwin
Baldwin’s epigram reminds us that to thrive, we must be able to see through imposed realities and prefab solutions. We may be tempted to seek definitive answers, but what we really need now is to live into the questions.
November 11, 2014 by SuJ'n
Combining data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) Creative Class County Codes and the Census Bureau's 2007-11 American Community Survey, Tim Wojan of the USDA ERS reports comparative data on the economic resilience of creative class workers in metro vs. non-metro counties.
From Wojan:
Creative class counties were more likely to be classified as resilient than their non-creative class peers. That is, a higher share of creative class counties gained employment in recovery after losing employment in recession. However, the percentage of metro counties classified as resilient was higher than the percentage of nonmetro counties, irrespective of creative class status.
November 11, 2014 by Steve
From Drew Lindsay, writing for The Chronicle of Philanthropy:
A federal bankruptcy judge (last week) approved a financial reorganization plan for Detroit that relies on nearly a half-billion dollars in philanthropic support to shore up the city’s pension system, protect its world-class art museum, and help lift the city from insolvency. As Detroit emerges from what is America’s largest municipal bankruptcy, some big names in philanthropy will now put their dollars to work in unprecedented fashion — providing a cash infusion to a government pension system. Ten foundations — including the national giants Ford and the John S. and James L. Knight foundations — are moving forward on their pledges to contribute $366-million over 20 years to an $816-million fund that will help the city pay the pensions of its workers and retirees.
November 10, 2014 by SuJ'n in Racial Equity
During the summer of 2014, the editorial team at Createquity scanned the research on diversity in arts patronage, arts creation, and arts administration. It found that research generally fell into four categories: 1) arts participation, 2) broad demographic shifts impacting the field, 3) specific demographic shifts impacting specific disciplines, and 4) recommendations to arts organizations on how to diversify their audiences. Last week, the team shared about its initial thoughts on the research scan and the development of their hypotheses.