An article from Foundation Review authored by Gary L. Cunningham, Northwest Area Foundation; Marcia L. Avner, University of Minnesota-Duluth and Romilda Justilien, BCT Partners explores the multiple approaches that foundations can use to advance racial equity and prosperity. “The Urgency of Now: Foundations’ Role in Ending Racial Inequity” is built on the premise that if we remain on the current trajectory with no significant change in the socioeconomic position of low income people of color, everyone will pay a price.
Grantmakers in the Arts
April 17, 2014 by Tommer
The Walter & Elise Haas Fund, working together with the Foundation Center and Mission Minded, has developed an open-source, free solution that any grantmaking entity can use to make its grantmaking data searchable, publishable, sharable, and fully accessible.
April 16, 2014 by Steve
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that the NEA plans to award $74.85 million in 971 grants to nonprofit organizations nationwide as part of the second half of its fiscal year 2014 funding. In addition to direct grants through the Art Works category, this round of funding also supports the state arts agencies and regional arts organizations – the NEA's partners in bringing the arts to all parts of the nation – as well as grants for research projects that build evidence on the value and impact of the arts.
April 15, 2014 by Steve
Emiko Ono writes for ArtsBlog:
In the past, a productive arts organization was understood to contribute to a community’s quality of life and help drive its economy — it was inherently perceived to be a public good. This “social contract” is fraying based on a growing awareness of the very real inequities that exist in the United States... The nonprofit arts sector, including its funders, is increasingly expected to do more for distressed and marginalized communities if it is to merit designation as a public good.
April 14, 2014 by Tommer
April 13, 2014 by Steve
From Graham Bowley and Patricia Cohen, writing for the New York Times:
The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, tucked into a quiet corner of a college campus here in the hills of the Pacific Northwest, is hardly the epicenter of the art world. Yet major collectors, fresh from buying a Warhol or a Basquiat or another masterpiece in New York, routinely choose this small, elegant redbrick building at the University of Oregon to first exhibit their latest trophy. The museum’s intimacy and scholarship are likely to play some role in their choice. But a primary lure for the collectors is often something more prosaic: a tax break.
April 11, 2014 by Tommer
President Obama announced his intent to nominate Dr. William “Bro” Adams as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Adams is President of Colby College, a position he has held since 2000. Previously, he was President of Bucknell University from 1995 to 2000.
April 10, 2014 by Steve
EmcArts, the social enterprise for learning and innovation in the arts, is taking proposals for Innovation Lab, their 16-month-long immersion programs for U.S.-based arts and arts service organizations seeking to uncover adaptive strategies and responses to their most complex challenges. The program was launched in 2008 and will deliver two more rounds of the program to eight participating organizations from across the country in 2014 and 2015. These new rounds are funded by a $1.58 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Four organizations from across the country will be selected for each of these two rounds.