Individual Donor

Following up on Stan Hutton's introduction to arts blogs in the last Reader, in this issue we're looking at the beginnings of the philanthropic blogosphere. As with many blogs covering a specific field, philanthropic blogs tend to offer either personal journals of opinion and ideas or periodic news round-ups, brief abstracts of articles or publications and links to the original. Some, of course, provide both.

One effect of attacks on the leading agencies supporting cultural pluralism in the not-for-profit sector, which began with the Reagan administration and continued through the Clinton presidency to the present day, has been to elevate the U.S. commercial arts at the expense of the not-for-profit arts.

April 2002, 47 pages. Supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and the Urban Institute. (Research conducted by the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute with assistance from the Center for Survey Research at Ohio State University and the Center for Survey Research at Indiana University, Bloomington.) 202-833-7200, paffairs@ui.urban.org

May 2003, 272 pages. Southern Illinois University Press, Robert A. Shanke, Theater in America Series, editor, 800-346-2680 or 618-453-2281, www.siu.edu/~siupress

2002, 116 pages. Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co., LLP, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Distributed by LarsonAllen Public Service Group, (612) 397-3301 or (888) 529-2648, psg@larsonallen.com, Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co., LLP

"Without getting on a soapbox, I would say that dancing is as much a calling as it is anything else. Don't think of it as a career. You're stupid if you do. You've got to have something burning in your gut that you want to express."

When the Council on Foundations meets in Toronto this April, GIA members in attendance will have the chance to meet a fledgling affinity group of Canadian arts funders that is putting together the 1st Canadian Arts Funders Forum.

The Animating Democracy National Exchange on Art and Civic Dialogue
Flint, Michigan, October 9-12, 2003

2002, 127 pages. The Center for an Urban Future, New York, NY, 212-479-3344, www.nycfuture.org.

What can evaluation accomplish for grantmakers and grantees? What roles should each play in the design and execution of the evaluation process? Recent briefings from The Conservation Company and the Neighborhood Funders Group examine these questions from different vantage points.

Evaluation: The Good News for Funders
Andrew Mott