Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking – 2010 Report
Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking assembles a first-time portrait of arts funders, social change funders, and others supporting civic engagement and social change through arts and cultural strategies.
Findings based on 228 grantmaker survey responses and 32 interviews suggest that arts and social change philanthropy is an emerging field and therefore still very much evolving. However, there is a wider range and a larger number of grantmakers supporting arts for change in some way than has been generally recognized. Focusing on grantmaking in the United States, the report characterizes the nature of support from both private and public sectors, examining how grantmakers think about social change in the context of agency goals and what outcomes they are looking for through their support. The report looks at the types of activities and projects that are being funded as well as grantmaking strategies and structures. It documents obstacles and opportunities for greater support and, in its entirety, aims to advance both discussions about this field of work and support for it.
As social justice philanthropy on the whole is growing, so too artists and arts organizations increasingly are being called upon across sectors to bring forth new ways to know and understand an increasingly complex world. As the report informs arts leaders, artists, and stakeholders, it is a key resource for funders who seek to learn about and consider their place in supporting this kind of work. It can inform internal conversations and program design as well as provide a resource for peer exchange, sharing of reports and documentation, collective understanding of the impact of field activity, and strategic collaboration among funders.
Directory of Funders
Check out the companion online Directory of Funders that profiles more than 150 grantmakers who support arts strategies to make community, social, and civic change.
For a copy of the introduction to the Directory, please check out the PDF here.
These resources were made possible with support from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, CrossCurrents Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Lambent Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.