September 6, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
While performing-arts groups in the United States have long raised substantial portions of their budgets from individuals, in Europe such organizations are just beginning to tap into private wealth, according to The Economist magazine (August 18-24).
With government funds for music, dance, and drama declining even in countries with long histories of support for the arts, like Austria, Germany, Italy, and Russia, and corporate sponsorship harder to come by, nonprofit groups are working hard to enliven the philanthropic impulse among individuals, the magazine says.
Fund raisers are taking “crash courses” in how to ask for gifts, how to thank generous donors to ensure that future gifts will be forthcoming, and how to lobby governments for tax changes that will encourage philanthropy, says the British weekly.
And, while the numbers are largely anecdotal, the new efforts of fund raisers appear to be succeeding. Among the reasons: a growing belief among business executives that their money can make a real difference to the arts; the hiring of American fund raisers by numerous European groups; the formation of organizations that advise arts organizations and donors about giving; and an increasing number of American donors who are teaching Europeans about “aggressive American-style philanthropy.”
The article is available for a fee at http://www.economist.com.
