Conversations on Capitalization: Overcoming the Obstacles

Earlier this month, Nonprofit Finance Fund released a new analysis featuring the responses from the leaders of 919 arts and culture organizations who took our 2014 survey of nonprofit business health. The State of the Arts and Culture Sector report captures the challenges and triumphs of nonprofits grappling with financial pressures, changing demographics, new technologies, and opportunities to expand the reach of their programs. (The full data can be filtered by artistic discipline, geography and budget size through our online survey analyzer, available here).

NFF’s report identifies some of the systemic barriers that impede cultural organizations from building financial structures supportive of art-making and community engagement. One of these barriers is the missing dialogue between grantmakers and grantees: cultural organizations report significant discomfort engaging their funders in meaningful, candid conversations about their need for flexible capital to support liquidity, risk-taking and change.