Americans for the Arts: New Publications

As the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, Americans for the Arts represents and serves local communities in an effort to create opportunities to participate in and appreciate the arts.

Browse some of their recent publications to learn more about arts philanthropy and arts advocacy:

Congressional Arts Handbook 2007: Facts & Figures at Your Fingertips
Developed for Arts Advocacy Day 2007, the guide can be used to build government support for the arts in various communities. Contains issue briefs, voting records, statistics, and Congressional contact information.
Access: PDF


The Future of Private Sector Giving to the Arts in America
Summary of research and recommendations put forth at the 2006 National Arts Policy Roundtable. Research shows that funding for arts organizations is dropping across the philanthropic sector. The report lists policy recommendations by sector, including business, foundation, individual, and government giving.
Access: PDF


The Quality and Nature of Corporate Support for the Arts: A Pilot Study
Business executives were interviewed to explore their views on corporate philanthropy in the arts. Topics covered in the research study include corporate giving priorities, arts funding requests, arts-business partnerships, and the drop in corporate support for the arts. The report concludes with recommendations to help arts organizations strengthen relationships with corporations, noting that arts councils can play an important role in facilitating these efforts.
Access: Visit one of our five Foundation Center library/learning centers or purchase from Americans for the Arts

Corporate Giving Periodicals

There are currently two periodicals that can help you learn more about the giving programs at the nation’s largest corporations.

One well-known periodical is the Corporate Philanthropy Report from by LRP Publishers. Yesterday, the Foundation Center library received the November 2007 issue which spotlights airlines such as American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Southwest, United, and US Airways. The pharmaceutical industry is also highlighted with profiles of Abbott Laboratories, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Pfizer.

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) is an international membership group that seeks to advance corporate giving and inspire other business leaders to make a commitment to philanthropy. CECP's publication, The Corporate Philanthropist, is available in full-text online. In a special issue published earlier this year, executives from businesses and nonprofits share perspectives and best practices on corporate philanthropy and the arts. Companies discussed include JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg, Time Warner, and others.

Tip: If you are looking for a search tool to find company-sponsored foundations or corporate giving programs that may support your nonprofit, try using the Foundation Center subscription databases, Corporate Giving Online or Foundation Directory Online (specify “Type of Grantmaker” when searching). Foundation Directory Online can also be used free of charge at the Foundation Center’s library/learning centers and Cooperating Collections.

Governance Frequently Asked Questions

The Foundation Center libraries have acquired the new edition of The Nonprofit Board Answer Book: A Practical Guide for Board Members. The volume answers 80 questions on a variety of topics, including board functions, board structure, board development, committee meetings, fiduciary responsibilities, board-staff relations, and organizational change issues. The new edition contains more information on compensation, accountability, risk management, diversity issues, Sarbanes-Oxley and other legislation. Here are some sample questions that are addressed:

What is the best size for our board?

How does the board avoid the extremes of "rubber stamping" and micromanaging?

How can technology improve board and committee meetings?

Learn more at BoardSource's web site.

Grantmakers in the Arts Reader

Grantmakers in the Arts' GIA Reader discusses current and emerging issues facing it members, which include to foundations, government entities, and individual donors.

The latest issue of the GIA Reader (Fall 2007) is a compilation of essays collected for the Grantmakers in the Arts 2007 conference. Two of the essays in this special volume are from historian and former GIA board member, James Allen Smith. He discusses professionalism in philanthropy and looks at the unique characteristics of cultural giving.

The Summer 2007 issue of the GIA Reader contains the annual update, "Vital Signs: Snapshots of Arts Funding." The update provides an analysis of foundation grants to arts and culture in 2005, based on data from the Foundation Center. A brief article from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies that covers government funding for the arts from 1992-2007 is also included.

If you are interested in any of these features, visit the Grantmakers in the Arts web site. Some articles from the GIA Reader are available in full text:

GIA Reader - Summer 2007
GIA Reader - Fall 2007

Philanthropy 2.0

Interested in learning how technology continues to change the way we support our favorite causes and collect information on our donors? Have a look at Contribute magazine’s September/October 2007 issue which contains the special report, “The Cause Web.” Here are some selected articles:

"Facebook Generation: 10 Tech Revolutionaries Redefining the Power and Face of Philanthropy." p. 44-53
In addition to Contribute's profiles of technology luminaries, the article also includes an edited transcript of an interview with Joe Green and Sean Parker, who created Facebook's Causes web application. The tool allows users to support and raise money for their favorite nonprofits.

"Pixel-anthropy: Second Life Gets Second Wind as Nonprofits Move In--and Reach Out". p. 54-61.
Describes the growing interest in virtual communities on the Internet, such as Second Life. The article also includes an interview with Anshe Chung, a Second Life real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist.

"Privacy Lost." p. 68-74.
An edited transcript of a roundtable discussion on new privacy and security risks facing donors as more personal information is captured in databases. Participants include Sree Sreenivasan, dean at the Columbia University's journalism school; Marc Rotenberg, executive director and founder of the Electronic Privacy Information Center; Laura Fredericks, author and fundraiser; Chris South, director of Blackbaud Analytics; Cynthia Wainwright, philanthropist; and Jeff Brooks, author of donorpowerblog.com.

For other articles and books on how nonprofits make use of the Internet, click here to search our Catalog of Nonprofit Literature.

Recent "Off the Shelf" Book Reviews

Here are highlights from Philanthropy News Digest's Off the Shelf book reviews by Foundation Center staff:

Financing Nonprofits: Putting Theory into Practice. Dennis R. Young, editor (AltaMira Press, 2006)

"Financing Nonprofits is a comprehensive, high-level examination of the theory underlying nonprofit finance and, in addition to nonprofit CEOs, CFOs, and trustees, should be of interest to scholars and students of nonprofit finance." More...

Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. Marc Freedman (PublicAffairs, 2007)

"While Freedman does not rule out the business world as a source of encore careers, it is clear that his vision is for boomers to become 'the backbone of education, health care, nonprofits, the government, and other sectors essential to national well-being.' He convincingly argues not only that boomers are particularly well-suited for these roles given their life experience, but that labor shortages in crucial fields such as teaching and nursing demand intervention from the boomer generation." More...

Mapping the New World of American Philanthropy: Causes and Consequences of the Transfer of Wealth. Mary Beth Martin, Susan U. Raymond (John Wiley & Sons, 2007)

"...how will this unprecedented transfer of wealth affect the nonprofits that stand to gain? How will nonprofits respond to the managerial and organizational challenges? And can American philanthropy continue to exist in its current form?...Those are just some of the questions addressed in Mapping the New World of American Philanthropy." More...

Reconnecting Education and Foundations: Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capital. Thomas Ehrlich, Ray Bacchetti, editors (Jossey-Bass, 2006)

"To commemorate its centennial, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching commissioned two of its resident scholars, Ray Bacchetti and Thomas Ehrlich, to edit a collection on the faltering relationship between major foundations and educational institutions. The result, Reconnecting Education and Foundations, proposes a paradigmatic shift toward the accumulation of educational capital by grantseekers and grantmakers." More...

For a full list of archived Off the Shelf reviews, click here.

Funding for Basic Operating Support: Additional Readings

Cooperating Collections are free funding information centers in libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit resource centers that provide a core collection of Foundation Center publications and a variety of supplementary materials and services in areas useful to grantseekers. This weekend, Cooperating Collection supervisors from across the country are in New York for the annual Cooperating Collections national conference.

In one of the sessions, foundation representatives spoke about a key component of most nonprofit fundraising needs, general operating support. To explore the issues related to unrestricted support for nonprofits, the speakers suggested the following readings:

Core Support
F.B. Heron Foundation, 2005.

General Operating Support: A GEO Action Guide
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, 2005.

Highlights of Foundation Giving Trends, 2007 edition
Foundation Center.

In Search of Impact: Practices and Perceptions in Foundations' Provision of Program and Operating Grants to Nonprofits
Center for Effective Philanthropy, 2006.

Not All Grants Are Created Equal: Why Nonprofits Need General Operating Support from Foundations
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2005.

“No Strings Attached,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sept. 20, 2007, p. 32-33.
Abby Disney, co-founder and president of the Daphne Foundation, talks about the benefits of unrestricted gifts.

For other materials, search the Foundation Center's bibliographic database, the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, by entering “operating support” in the keyword field.