| How Much do Foundations Contribute to Arts and Culture? |
The Foundation Center estimates that U.S.
foundations gave approximately $3.7 billion to arts and culture in
2000, representing about 13 percent of all grant dollars given.
Total Foundation Giving to Arts and Culture
UPDATE--More current information on foundation contributions to arts and
culture is now available; see the 2003 Foundation Center special report, Arts
Funding IV, released in
June 2003.
The nation's approximately 56,600 foundations contributed an
estimated $3.69 billion to arts, culture, media and the humanities in 2000,
according to the Foundation Center. This represents approximately 13 percent
of an estimated total of $27.6 billion grant dollars given by foundations
in 2000. [Lawrence, Steven, Dia Ganguly. 2002. Foundation Yearbook,
2002. New York, NY: The Foundation Center, p. 2; Renz, Loren. 2002. Arts
Funding Update , 2002. New York, NY: The Foundation Center. (http://fdncenter.org/research/trends_analysis/pdf/artupdt.pdf)]
A detailed analysis of all grants of $10,000 or larger given by a subset
of 1,015 larger foundations found that arts and culture received about
12 percent of grant dollars given by these larger foundations. Among
the 200 or so smaller foundations in this subset, however, the percentage
of total grant dollars going to the arts was above 15 percent.
Within this subset of 1,015 larger foundations, education was the recipient
of the largest share of grant dollars, accounting for one-quarter (25%)
of all grant dollars awarded in 2000. The health sector ranked second
in terms of foundation support in 2000, receiving about one-fifth (21%)
of all grant dollars given. Human services received 14% of grant dollars
in 2000, ranking third, followed by arts and culture in fourth place
at 12%.
Arts Giving by Sub-fields
A detailed analysis of all arts-related grants of $10,000 or larger given
by a subset
of 1,015 larger foundations found that the performing arts field
was the largest recipient of arts and culture dollars awarded in 2000, accounting
for roughly one-third of all art and culture dollars given (32%). Museums
were close behind at 29 percent. No other area accounted for more than 10
percent of foundation giving to arts and culture [Lawrence, Steven, Dia
Ganguly. 2002. Foundation Giving Trends, 2002. New York, NY: The Foundation
Center, p. 16].
Trends in Foundation Giving to Arts and Culture
The estimated $3.7 billion given by foundations to arts, culture, media,
and the humanities in 2000 was roughly double the amount of support given
just four years earlier (approximately $1.8 billion in 1996). This increase
in giving to the arts between 1996 and 2000 was reflective of the booming
economy that prevailed during the late 1990s and generally comparable to
increases in foundation support for other areas, as well. The relative share
of foundation support for arts and culture, as a proportion of total foundation
giving, ranged from 12 to 15 percent between 1996 and 2000 [Renz, Loren.
2002. Arts Funding Update, 2002. New York, NY: The Foundation Center. (http://fdncenter.org/research/trends_analysis/pdf/artupdt.pdf);
Lawrence, Steven, Dia Ganguly. 2002. Foundation Giving Trends, 2002. New
York, NY: The Foundation Center, p. 15]
Complete data for foundation giving to arts and culture for the years since
2000 is not yet available. Clearly, the financial climate has changed dramatically
since 2000, and it is likely that new data will show a significant decline
in the level of foundation support for arts and culture since 2000. The
Foundation Center (http://fdncenter.org/) plans to issue an updated report on foundation support
for arts and culture sometime during 2003.
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