In the wake of a hair-raising legislative session that came very close to cutting all funding to small arts and cultural organization in Western New York, Paul T. Hogan, Vice President of the Oishei Foundation, sat down with a blogger from BuffaloNews.com to discuss how organizations should approach funding issues going forward.  The Oishei Foundation supplied the crucial 4-to-1 funding match that persuaded the Erie County, NY Legislature at the last moment to reconsider Erie County Executive Chris Collins’ extra spending veto, just barely sparing almost three dozen small and mid-sized arts and cultural organizations that would otherwise have gone without.  In his talk with BuffaloNews.com, Mr. Hogan said that successful fundraising strategies going forward must be data-driven, and he cited the success of organizations in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other cities utilizing Cultural Data Project resources.  Mr. Hogan also subsequently posted links to the New York State Cultural Data Project site and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance report, which was drawn from CDP data, on Facebook.