Philanthropic practice

Setting the Stage

With a population of over 2.3 million and one-in-four residents being foreign-born, Houston is the most ethnically diverse metro area in the nation. The city’s arts programs and cultural offerings are robust in number and breadth, and its vibrancy unfolds along the numerous bayous and highways. Most years see 11 to 16 million visitors traveling to the city for arts and cultural events. Houston’s nonprofit arts and culture sector, a $1.1 billion industry, employs more than 25,000 people.

Just societies cannot grow in toxic soil. To build regenerative communities, we should look to how life flourishes in the natural world, of which we are an inherent part.

To better support Black artists and cultural communities, arts philanthropy should increase its focus on stability and resilience in creative practice. Covid has fully revealed its long-standing fragility, leaving 63% of all artists unemployed and 66% unable to access the infrastructure necessary for their work.¹

Vu Le writes in Nonprofit AF about “sunsetting” in philanthropy and how he appreciates "when funders have the courage to do this. So many societal problems could be resolved more effectively if more foundations would spend more now to solve these problems instead of hoarding resources, which allows entrenched issues to persist."

An article in Impact Alpha reflects on building a personal portfolio of impact investments in the creative economy.

An article in Westword tackles how nonprofit leaders relate to foundations and power imbalance, among other obstacles they face.

In "Cultural institutions start to put their assets to work for mission," published in ImpactAlpha, Dennis Price discusses Upstart Co-Lab's new research on "what cultural institutions need to know about investing for values and mission is the first primer on impact investing specifically for leaders of museums and other cultural institutions."

In a recent podcast, Michelle Coffey, executive director of Lambent Foundation, has a conversation with facilitator Gibrán Rivera, Lambent’s “network theory” guide, about "how arts organizations can lead with consciousness, culture, and action through relentless experimentation" in this historic moment.

In the midst of this year’s crisis, Forbes writes about companies born in the creative economy.