Studies Find Big Rise in Contributions to the Arts by Corporations and Foundations

December 17, 1998 | Read Time: 4 minutes

Foundations and businesses have given more and more money to the arts this decade, according to two new reports.

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Giving to the Arts by Foundations:

Last year, contributions that businesses made to arts organizations reached an all-time high of $1.16-billion, says a report published by the Business Committee for the Arts, a non-profit group in New York that promotes giving to the arts.

And foundation grants to arts organizations grew to an estimated $1.7-billion in 1996 — a $330-million jump from four years earlier — according to the New York-based Foundation Center’s latest study on arts grant making.

But the news for arts groups wasn’t all good: 39 per cent of the businesses surveyed made donations to benefit the arts last year, down from 45 per cent in 1994. And, despite gains in foundation giving to the arts from 1992 to 1996, the share of total foundation contributions that went to the arts slipped from 13.3 per cent to 12.2 per cent during those years.

The Business Committee for the Arts report was based on a survey of 938 companies conducted by Roper Starch Worldwide, based in New York. Half of the companies have annual revenues of at least $1-million and less than $50-million, and half have revenues of $50-million or more.

The Foundation Center’s study was based on a sample of grants of $10,000 or more. The 1996 sample — the most recent year for which information was available — included 11,300 arts awards from 849 foundations.

Among the studies’ key findings:

* Performing-arts groups received the biggest share of donations from both businesses and foundations. According to the foundation study, one out of every three dollars of arts funds from grant makers went to support the performing arts. Among businesses, about a third of the donations made to support the arts went specifically to performing-arts facilities — up from 13 per cent in 1994.

* More than four out of five foundations made arts grants, slightly more than in 1992. By comparison, about three-quarters of grant makers in 1996 provided support for higher education, and about two-thirds made awards for hospitals and medical care.

* Nearly one out of every four dollars that businesses gave to charity last year went to support the arts; that’s up from less than one out of every five dollars in 1994. And 65 per cent of the total — or more than $750-million — came from companies with annual revenues of at least $1-million and less than $50-million.

* The median annual contribution to the arts made by businesses — meaning half the businesses gave more and half gave less — grew from $2,000 in 1994 to $3,000 in 1997. Among foundations, the median value of arts grants was $25,000 in each of 1992 and 1996. Adjusting for inflation, that means that the purchasing power of the median foundation grant fell by more than one-tenth.

* The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston got the most foundation money of any arts group in 1996. It received 26 grants worth nearly $13.4-million, including a $10-million gift from the Brown Foundation, in Houston, for an expansion project.

Both the business and the foundation studies attribute much of the upswing in giving to the arts to the good economy. The buoyant stock market in the first half of the 1990s swelled foundation endowments and helped businesses prosper, paving the way for more giving to charity overall.

But Judith A. Jedlicka, president of the Business Committee for the Arts, says some of the credit for the increase should be given to the arts groups themselves.

“The arts have done a good job in the last few years of making the case that the arts are a magnet that attract people to work in a community, live in a community, and visit a community,” Ms. Jedlicka says. “Arts groups have begun to see themselves as economic engines in communities and sell themselves as a quality-of-life issue.”

Copies or a summary of the Business Committee for the Arts report, “The BCA Report: National Survey Business Support to the Arts 1998,” may be obtained from BCA Publications, 1755 Broadway, Suite 510, New York 10019-1942; (212) 664-0600. The cost, which includes postage, is $65 for the full report and $8 for the summary. For more information, go to http://www.bcainc.org.

The Foundation Center’s report, Arts Funding: An Update on Foundation Trends, is available for $19.95, plus $4.50 for shipping for the first ordered copy and $2.50 for each additional copy, from the Foundation Center, Department NW24, 79 Fifth Avenue, New York 1003-3076; (212)-807-3690. Orders can also be faxed to (212) 807-3076, or placed on line at http://www.fdncenter.org. All orders must be prepaid.