AFTA’s Animating Democracy program has a new website. You can check it out at animatingdemocracy.org.
Grantmakers in the Arts
March 9, 2012 by Steve
Scott Walters, director of the Center for Rural Arts Development and Leadership Education, writes for Huffington Post:
Often hanging on financially by their fingernails, arts leaders have been taught to play a particular game that exists only within a specific artistic ecosystem, and no matter how unjust that system might be, they often become extremely defensive if that game is questioned. And yet, more and more artists and arts bloggers are doing just that—asking uncomfortable questions about economic equity, diversity, and fairness within the world of nonprofit arts institutions.
March 8, 2012 by Steve
To commemorate its 40th anniversary, Funders for LGBTQ Issues has produced a historical overview of the history of LGBTQ philanthropy. The document is rich with data, including annual reports of US-based foundation funding, along with narrative passages describing highlights in the movement of LGBTQ philanthropy.
March 8, 2012 by Steve
Arts organizations are looking for ways to develop their audiences. What works? What doesn’t? And how can successes be sustained? Building Arts Organizations that Build Audiences is a new report documenting a June 2011 Wallace conference of foundation-supported arts groups, marketing mavens, researchers and others, provides some potential answers, including encouraging organization-wide learning.
From the report:
March 7, 2012 by Janet
Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA), a national association of private, public and nonprofit arts funders, has for some years had a goal of advocacy and policy development. This week, GIA launches the Arts Education Funders Coalition to specifically identify and advocate for arts in federal education policies. GIA has contracted with the Penn Hill Group, an experienced education policy firm in Washington DC to guide us in this work.
The questions might be “why are grantmakers doing this?” and “why federal education policy?”
March 7, 2012 by Steve
Register for NCRP’s next “Pulse” webinar, Leveraging Limited Dollars: How Grantmakers and Nonprofits Can Make the Case for Funding Policy Advocacy and Civic Engagement on Monday, March 26, at 2:00pm EST, to discuss the newest findings from NCRP on the impacts of foundation-funded policy and civic engagement and share innovative ways that grantmakers and nonprofits are using this information to increase resources for advocacy and community-based problem solving.
March 6, 2012 by Steve
Executive Director Claire Peeps announced today that the Durfee Foundation has launched a new website. Check it out at www.durfee.org.
March 5, 2012 by Steve
Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
It is rare that a pundit (and ardent reformer) lays out clearly and crisply the core assumption driving the past thirty years of school reform. It is not only rare but startling when that insider then questions the assumption, suggesting that it is a hunch, not a fact. That is what Mike Petrilli does in his recent posting, “The Test Score Hypothesis.”