October 11, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Arts fund raisers should have ready explanations for donors who want to know why culture groups need their gifts as much as social-service charities that serve the poor, writes Andrew Taylor on The Artful Manager.
Mr. Taylor is director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business. He points to articles published in Good magazine and The New York Times, as well as commentary by former Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich that question the validity of giving tax breaks for some types of philanthropy.
Mr. Reich, for example, in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, says donors to arts groups and universities should not be given the same tax breaks as donors to other causes. He suggests that donors to social-service groups should claim a full deduction for gifts, while donors to arts groups and universities should only get to deduct half their contribution.
“Why should people give to your organization rather than support the poor, the hungry, or the destitute?” says Mr. Taylor. “And why should your donors get a tax break on their gifts? They are horrible questions to answer, but you’d best have an answer at hand.”
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