Giving Thoughts

Bottom line: The arts could be your company’s greatest asset

By Emily Peck, Vice President of Private Sector Initiatives, Americans for the Arts

In light of the recent Giving Thoughts Q&A with Peter Singer, which suggested that “resources we put into museums and symphony orchestras could do more good if used to help the global poor,” I wanted to look at corporate funding trends for the arts. At Americans for the Arts, we have been tracking trends in business support for the arts through our Business Committee for the Arts since 1968.

In our most recent BCA National Survey of Business Support for the Arts, we surveyed 600 small, midsize and large businesses to learn how and why they support the arts. Between 2009 and 2012, business giving to the arts increased 18 percent, bringing it back to almost 2006 levels. This is not surprising, since giving to the arts usually tracks with the economy.

The majority of the support comes from small and midsize businesses, as well as local businesses. Companies with less than $50 million in revenue provide 82 percent of funding for the arts, and 96 percent of that money is directed locally. Less than 1 percent of the funding goes to international end-recipients.

Arts as an educator
The most recent Giving in Numbers report, published by CECP in association with The Conference Board, shows an annual decrease in support for the arts between 2007 and 2012. One reason for this discrepancy between the two surveys is that Giving in Numbers tracks only large business giving to the arts while the BCA Survey looks at small, midsize and large businesses. Michael Stroik, Manager, Research and Analytics at CECP, analyzes the arts trends in Giving in Numbers on ArtsBlog. He states that arts funding is down due to a number of factors, including the recession and an increased philanthropic focus on education. He argues that arts organizations need to make a better case for how they are advancing education in America.

Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce?, a report by The Conference Board with Americans for the Arts and the American Association of School Administrators, makes the case for the value of the arts in the future workforce. For both employers (56 percent) and superintendents (79 percent), a degree in the arts was the most significant indicator of creativity. The report concludes: “It is clear that the arts—music, creative writing, drawing, dance—provide skills sought by employers of the third millennium.”

Making the case for business support
We know that there is still more work to be done to make the case for the importance of business partnerships with the arts. According to the BCA Survey, 73 percent of businesses that support the arts consider the arts a moderate to very low priority. This means that it is not ingrained in the DNA of the company and every leadership change or funding priority shift is a risk to arts support.

From our work, we know that the arts can advance business goals and we need to make sure this message is getting out to the business community. To demonstrate the many ways partnering with the arts can advance business goals, we launched the pARTnership Movement. Through stories of successful partnerships, a list of 8 reasons why businesses should partner with the arts and other resources, we are making the case that when arts and business partners, everyone profits.

It was this idea that drove American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller when he founded the Business Committee for the Arts in 1966. In the BCA Founding Address, he stated:

“What a resounding acknowledgement this would be that the enhancement and development of the arts are worthy objectives for corporate social responsibility. Too often the tendency is to regard the arts as something pleasant but peripheral. I feel the time has come when we must regard them a primary position as essential to our nation’s well-being.”

In a recent New York Times letter to the editor, Americans for the Arts CEO Robert Lynch and the actor Robert Redford responded to the idea that arts funding is just for the wealthy. They wrote, “Businesses benefit from the creativity, perseverance and problem-solving skills that Americans develop through the arts. The arts drive private-sector investment and job creation.” At Americans for the Arts, we know that with strengthened arts funding, businesses could be even more successful, and in the long run the world’s poor could be better served.

About the author:

Emily Peck is the Vice President of Private Sector Initiatives at Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. She is responsible for providing business and foundation leaders with the information, resources and strategies they need to better partner with and support the arts. She joined the staff of Americans for the Arts in 2008 as part of the merger with the Business Committee for the Arts (BCA).