Image courtesy of Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, San Francisco, CA. Gate of Winds featuring Brendan Barthel, Chinchin Hsu, Ryan T. Smith. Photo by Megan Moritz (2014).
During the pandemic, arts organizations became more reliant on contributed revenue to stay afloat, but in 2024, the average balance of income streams shows very similar patterns to 2019, with earned revenue accounting for 40% of total revenue on average, and contributed 59%. This is the result of the slow recovery of earned revenue after disruptions during quarantine, and declines in contributed revenue since 2022. Business models may be returning to pre-pandemic patterns, even as revenue overall has gone down.
Average (mean) values. The percentages in this visualization are not expected to add up to 100% because they are calculated averages of each organization’s percentage of earned and contributed revenue.
Overall, average revenue fell 25% from 2023 to 2024 as reductions across earned, contributed, and investment revenue brought totals to below pre-pandemic levels for the first time since 2021. When accounting for inflation, revenue fell 36% over the course of the six-year period from 2019 to 2024.
Average (mean) values.
While all sources of contributed revenue declined from 2023 to 2024, the 25% drop in foundation funding was particularly striking. Foundation support, the largest source of contributed revenue, has fallen below pre-pandemic levels for the first time since 2020. Additionally, as relief funding wanes, government funding continues on a downward trend, declining 26% from 2023.
Average (mean) values.
Despite a decline in average total revenue from 2023 to 2024, most organizations analyzed (62%) experienced an increase in revenue in this same period, indicating that revenue losses were concentrated among a subset of organizations and not a universal experience. This was true for both earned and contributed revenue as well.
Analysis of 1288 organizations reporting data in FY 2023 and FY 2024.