Mr. Jeff A. Hawthorne
Will Corporate Giving Ever Recover?
Posted by Mar 12, 2010 0 comments
Mr. Jeff A. Hawthorne
When Americans for the Arts rolled out its National Arts Index in January, it presented a new way to measure the health and vitality of the arts and culture sector by examining various indicators and comparing them to a 2003 baseline.
“Healthy” would not be a word used describe what the corporate giving figures will look like in 2009 and 2010, and there was some discussion as to whether business and corporate giving to the arts would ever again be vital. Arthur C. Brooks, an advisor to the index, a musician, and president of the American Enterprise Institute, went so far as to declare that this, ladies and gentlemen, is the new reality for corporate giving in American, and we will never again see even the modest levels of support that arts organizations received in the mid 2000s.
This comment, naturally, sent me running back home with all kinds of questions for our corporate leaders here in Portland. I asked some of our friends to tell us whether they think corporate giving will recover, and what arts organizations should know going forward. This is what they’re saying.
- Carole Morse, President of the PGE Foundation: “One thing that is happening corporately is the desire to tie giving to corporate strategies and performance. Nobody's come up w/the formula that can measure that very well. The best way to increase corporate giving is to get employees volunteering and giving to the arts -- then corporate dollars will follow.”
- Mark Edlen, Principal for Gerding Edlen Development: “Yes corporate giving to the arts will recover. However, it looks like it will be some time before the economy fully recovers and we reach close to full employment. Until we reach stability I would expect reduced giving and that it will be in direct proportion to profitability. Particularly, I would expect that smaller local companies’ giving will be 100% dependent on profitability because the giving decision is most typically made by the owner who is dependent on his or her company’s profits to generate donations. There is some logic to the notion that some will not give at previous levels due to the duration and severity of this downturn and the resulting ‘scarring’ effect.”
- Bob Speltz, Director of Public Affairs at Standard Insurance: "Fair or not, there is the perception that businesses here can and should do more. For those of us inside companies that have long supported cultural institutions, hearing that is hard. At Nike, they are using sports to build civil society and to improve lives. Intel is very focused on science and education, and bringing women and people of color into the field. This may be frustrating for arts groups to hear. But what it really means is that they have to do their homework and figure out which organizations care about the arts.
- George Thorn, consultant, Arts Action Research: “Other recessions tend to be cyclical. In looking ahead, we see this extending over a considerable period of time and don’t know what will be the new reality. I don’t’ think we’re going back to a previous reality. Everyone from foundations to corporations are doing the best they can with what they have, but there's a lack of awareness of the value of the arts in this city. We dream big things about recycling and sustainability here. But we just don't dream big enough about culture and the arts."
The task ahead, it seems, is to compel our business leaders who have supported the arts in the past to re-invest in our right-sized organizations as their profits allow, and to scour the companies in our communities for any arts-related angle we can find.