March Of The Meme

I'm impressed with the determination of the Irvine Foundation to spread its gospel about how arts groups need to spread their tentacles and develop their own donor communities in order to survive.

What I wonder, though, is whether this is a good idea. Art is often made within each group by a few deeply committed people and often works best if fundraising is kept at a minimum. These outreaching donor networks are hard to maintain, and self-limiting, since they inevitably crash into one another, as grasping artists try to bludgeon every dollar out of an increasingly-stingy donating subset of the general public.

I'm also impressed with how the Irvine Foundation gospel has spread everywhere, in Stepford Wife fashion, so everyone says just about the same thing these days, whether it is true, or not:

In today's economy, with its plunging endowments and reduced corporate giving, nonprofit arts organizations are looking to private donations as vital instruments of survival.

In Sacramento, where asking individuals for funds is not a deeply entrenched tradition, many of those donors will have to be first-time givers.

Lial Jones, executive director of the Crocker Art Museum, said it has not been common practice for Sacramento arts nonprofits to ask patrons to become donors.

"When I came to Sacramento 10 years ago, people said they never gave to the Crocker because no one ever asked them," Jones said.

..."The reality is that, for us, individual donors are (now) the biggest donor group," Jones said. "So, as we get reductions in public funds and our own endowments, we've had to redouble our efforts with individuals."....

"I've heard, anecdotally, that when patrons of arts organizations are asked why they have not donated they respond 'Well, I've never been asked,' " said Ruth Blank, executive director of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. That organization has been around for 25 years and oversees charitable funds established by individuals, families, businesses and organizations in the region; those funds are used for grants to local nonprofit organizations.

...To make sure the arts scene remains strong, the foundation recently established the Advancing Sacramento Arts Initiative. That effort seeks to create an endowment at the foundation that will go toward granting funds to small and medium-size arts organizations.

...When Feldman came to head the [Sacramento Philharmonic] three years ago, he also encountered a fundraising environment in which asking private individuals for donations was not a priority.

"I've had prospective donors tell me that they've never been asked to make an important gift," he said.

To reach those donors, the Philharmonic is putting together a fundraising committee that will come up with strategies on how best to increase private giving. Feldman said the committee will also seek ways to best approach donors who have already given to the Philharmonic and ask for an increased donation.

"Because there is this truism in fundraising that if you do not ask, you will not get," Feldman said.