Grantmakers in the Arts

(5-4-10) From The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has backed off a proposal to cut the city's arts grants by $415,000 and direct the money to cultural groups of his choosing, reports the Los Angeles Times.

(5-4-10) Betsy and Dick DeVos have pledged $22.5 million to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to expand the Center's 9-year old arts management institute. The institute, which has trained approximately 4,000 arts administrators in nonprofit operations, will be renamed the DeVos Institute of Arts Management. Betsy DeVos has served on the Kennedy Center board for six years and her husband, Dick, is the son of Amway Corporation co-founder Rich DeVos.

Read more on Bloomberg.com.

(5-3-10) The Council on Foundations and Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (GFEM) are seeking submissions of films and videos for the Council on Foundations' 44th Annual Film & Video Festival, to be held April 10-12, 2011, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To be eligible, the project must have received full or partial funding for production, distribution, and/or outreach from a private, community, operating, or corporate foundation; a corporate giving program; or a donor network. The grantmaker does not have to be a member of the Council or GFEM.

(5-3-10) In July, WNYC Radio acquired classical music station WQXR-FM and launched a $15 million capital campaign. Yesterday, the station announced the largest grant yet to this campaign, a $700,000 gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. "The grant will enable the station and its contemporary classical music stream, Q2, to develop and expand their programming and audience through live concert broadcasts and new partnerships with key cultural institutions such as the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center."

(5-3-10) Noelle Barton and Ben Gose summarize Chronicle of Philanthropy survey findings:

Small was beautiful in 2009. The smallest charity and foundation endowments solidly outperformed their bigger and more celebrated counterparts, according to a new Chronicle survey. Investment returns varied depending on when an endowment’s fiscal year ended, but the endowments with less than $100-million in assets had gentler declines and greater advances than their peers with assets of $1-billion or more...

(5-3-10) In a story for Bloomberg.com, Patrick Cole outlines ambitious educational initiatives undertaken by Eli Broad, founder of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and a prominent arts philanthropist. Broad does not mince words in his assessment of Americans as being "fat, dumb and happy" and notes: “In other countries, they take the top 10, 20 or 30 percent of the students and make them teachers...We get the bottom 30 percent out of education schools.”

(4-30-10) Anthony Paletta's op-ed in today's The Wall Street Journal:

It's no surprise that President Obama, with a lengthy background in the non-profit sector, has made strong efforts to reach out to the philanthropic community. What may come as a surprise is just how exhilarated the philanthropic community is by the attention.

(4-30-10) The National Endowment for the Arts today announced that 40 nonprofit, professional theater companies will receive grants of $25,000 each to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation from June 1, 2010-May 31, 2011. Part of the NEA's Shakespeare in American Communities initiative, Shakespeare for a New Generation introduces middle and high school students to the power of live theater and the masterpieces of William Shakespeare.