What Drives Sources to Give?
Driving Forces Outlined by Each Funding Source
What Drives Unrestricted Trustee Contributions?
17% of the variation in the level of unrestricted trustee contributions is explained by the factors from the arts and culture ecosystem. Nearly three-quarters - 74% - is attributable to intangibles such as strong bonds between board members and staff leadership, and 9% of variation for unrestricted trustee contributions raised is random.
What organizational characteristics affect this performance?
- Unrestricted contributions from trustees increase with sector, budget size, level of fixed assets and investments, and having more square footage. Trustee contributions are also higher for organizations that are in the midst of a capital campaign or recently completed one, have higher ticket prices, do more world premieres, and those that are awarded NEA or IMLS grants.
- Trustee contributions tend to be lower if an organization has a parent organization, or if it targets young adults, Asian Americans, African Americans or Hispanics/Latinos. Trustee contribution levels also tend to decrease as organizational age increases.
How do community arts and leisure characteristics affect performance?
- Unrestricted contributed revenue from trustees tends to be higher for organizations in communities with higher levels of total arts dollar activity and total number of artists and arts providers.
- Having more organizations that compete in the art museum, opera, arts education, music, and general performing arts sectors drives trustee contributions down for all organizations in these sectors. This is also the case when there is more public broadcast activity. More leisure activity acts as a substitute, driving trustee contributions down.
How do socio-demographic characteristics of the community affect performance?
- Unrestricted trustee contributions are higher for organizations in more densely populated communities, in communities where the socioeconomic level of the population is higher, and where there is a higher percentage of individuals 18-25 years of age, African American, or Hispanic/Latino in the population.
- Trustee contributions tend to be lower in communities with a higher percentage of the population under 18 or Asian American.
What impact does public funding have on performance?
- Higher levels of state and federal government grant activity in the local market raise the individual unrestricted trustee contributions for organizations in that market.
What Drives Unrestricted Individual Contributions?
20% of the variation in the level of unrestricted individual contributions is explained by the factors from the arts and culture ecosystem. Nearly three-quarters - 72% - is attributable to intangibles such as strong fundraising expertise or quality offerings that inspire support, and 8% of the variation in the amount of unrestricted individual contributions is random.
What organizational characteristics affect this performance?
- Unrestricted contributions from individuals increase with sector and budget size. Individual contributions are also higher for organizations that are in the midst of a capital campaign or recently completed one, charge higher ticket prices, have high trustee giving, spend more on fundraising, do more national or world premieres, or target Asian Americans.
- Individual contributions tend to be lower if an organization is older, targets young adults, African Americans, or Hispanics/Latinos.
How do community arts and leisure characteristics affect performance?
- Unrestricted contributed revenue from individual donors tends to be higher for organizations in communities with higher levels of total arts dollar activity and total number of artists and arts providers.
- In all sectors except dance and community-based organizations, when more organizations compete for individual contributions, it drives down individual contribution levels down for all organizations.
How do socio-demographic characteristics of the community affect performance?
- Unrestricted contributed revenue from individual donors is higher for organizations in less densely populated communities, where the socioeconomic level and median age of the population are higher, and where there is a higher percentage of the population that is 18-25 years of age or Hispanic/Latino.
- Individual contributions tend to be lower in communities with either a higher percentage of the population under 18, Asian American or African American. In communities with high levels of individual philanthropy overall, contributions to arts and culture organizations tend to be lower. It may be that other nonprofit sectors such as social services, education, or health care take prominence in these markets.
What impact does public funding have on performance?
- Overall state and federal grant activity in the larger local marketplace has a positive impact on an individual organization’s unrestricted individual contributions.
What Drives Unrestricted Corporate Contributions?
10% of the variation in the level of unrestricted corporate contributions is explained by the factors from the arts and culture ecosystem. Over three-quarters - 76% - is attributable to intangibles such as strong fundraising expertise or quality offerings that inspire support from corporations, and 14% of variation in the amount of unrestricted contributions from corporations is random.
What organizational characteristics affect this performance?
- Unrestricted contributions from corporations increase with sector, budget size, square footage, and relatively higher fixed assets. Corporate contributions are also higher for organizations that are in the midst of a capital campaign or recently completed one, have higher attendance, spend more on fundraising, receive higher levels of local or state support, and those that have been awarded NEA or IMLS grants. Corporate contribution levels tend to be higher for organizations that target kids, African Americans or Asian Americans.
- Corporate contributions tend to be lower as organizational age increases, if an organization offers more national or world premieres, or if the organization targets young adults.
How do community arts and leisure characteristics affect performance?
- Unrestricted contributed revenue from corporations tends to be higher for organizations in communities with higher levels of total arts dollar activity, comparatively fewer total artists and arts providers, more public broadcast activity, and more leisure activities, which in this case, act as complements.
- Having more art museums or “other” museums in a community tends to raise the tide of corporate contributions for all organizations in these two sectors in the market.
- Having more organizations that compete for corporate contributions in the community-based, dance, music, opera, symphony orchestra, theatre, or general performing arts sectors drives down corporate contribution levels for all organizations in these sectors.
How do socio-demographic characteristics of the community affect performance?
- Unrestricted contributed revenue from corporations is higher for organizations in more densely populated communities, more philanthropic communities, and in communities where kids make up a higher percentage of the population.
- Corporate contributions tend to be lower in communities with either a higher percentage of the population aged 18-24, African American, Asian American or Hispanic/Latino. Higher socioeconomic levels in the community tends to drive lower levels of corporate contributions.
What impact does public funding have on performance?
- Overall state and federal grant activity in the larger local marketplace has a positive impact on an individual organization’s unrestricted corporate contributions.
What Drives Unrestricted Foundation Support?
16% of the variation in the level of unrestricted foundation support is explained by the factors from the arts and culture ecosystem. Well over three-quarters - 80% - is attributable to intangibles such as strong fundraising expertise and quality offerings that inspire support, and 4% of the variation in the amount of unrestricted foundation support is random.
What organizational characteristics affect this performance?
- Unrestricted foundation support increases with sector and budget size. Foundation support is also higher for organizations that spend more on fundraising, do more world premieres, receive higher levels of local or state support, and those that have been awarded NEA or IMLS grants. Targeting kids, young adults, African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos tends to raise foundation funding levels.
- Foundation support tends to be lower as organizational age increases, as square footage increases, or if the organization targets Asian Americans.
How do community arts and leisure characteristics affect performance?
- Unrestricted contributed revenue from foundations tends to be higher for organizations in communities with higher levels of total arts dollar activity and total number of artists and arts providers. The more art museums in the market, the higher the foundation support for all organizations in this sector.
- Foundation support tends to be lower with greater availability of leisure activities, which in this case, acts as substitutes.
- Having more organizations that compete for foundation support in a sector drives foundation support levels down for organizations in the arts education, opera, and other museum sectors.
- A greater presence of public radio and television activity in a market tends to drive foundation support for arts and cultural organizations down.
How do socio-demographic characteristics of the community affect performance?
- Unrestricted foundation support is higher for organizations in more densely populated communities and where the population has a higher percentage of African Americans.
- Foundation support tends to be lower in communities with either a higher percentage of Asian American, Hispanic/Latino, or under 18 years of age in the population. The higher the median income in the community, the lower the foundation support provided to arts and cultural organizations.
- Higher socioeconomic levels and higher individual philanthropy levels in the community also tends to drive lower levels of foundation support.
What impact does public funding have on performance?
- Overall state and federal grant activity in the larger local marketplace tends to drive down an individual organization’s unrestricted foundation support.
What Drives Unrestricted Government Support?
12% of the variation in the level of unrestricted government support is explained by the factors from the arts and culture ecosystem. Well over three-quarters - 83% - is attributable to intangibles such as strong grant writing and quality offerings that inspire support, and 5% of the variation in the amount of unrestricted government support is random.
What organizational characteristics affect this performance?
- Unrestricted government support increases with sector, budget size and organizational age. Government support is also higher for organizations that spend more on fundraising or have proportionally higher total program expenses, charge very low ticket prices, or have higher attendance levels.
- Government support levels tend to be higher for organizations that target Asian Americans, African Americans or Hispanics/Latinos.
- Government support tends to be lower for organizations that are in or have recently completed a capital campaign, target young adults, or offer more world premieres.
How do community arts and leisure characteristics affect performance?
- Higher levels of public radio and television activity in a market drives government support for arts and cultural organizations higher. Government support tends to be higher with greater availability of leisure activities, which in this case, act as complements.
- Having more arts education organizations in a community tends to raise the tide of government support for all organizations in this sector in the market.
- Unrestricted government support tends to be lower for organizations in communities with higher levels of total arts dollar activity and more artists and arts providers.
- Having more organizations that compete for government support within the theatre, community, art museum, other museum, PAC, opera, or general performing arts sectors drives down government support levels for all organizations in these sectors.
How do socio-demographic characteristics of the community affect performance?
- Unrestricted government support is higher for organizations in less densely populated communities and in communities where African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, or Asian Americans make up a higher percentage of the population.
- Government support tends to be lower in communities where kids and young adults make up a higher percentage of the population or where the median age in the community is higher. In markets where there is a higher socioeconomic level, there tends to be lower levels of government support.
What impact does public funding have on performance?
- Overall state and federal grant activity in the larger local marketplace has a positive impact on an individual organization’s unrestricted government support.
Trends That Drive Total Expenses
What organizational characteristics affect this performance?
- Expenses increase with sector, organizational age, budget size, higher levels of local and state funding, and more programmatic offerings.
- When organizations have a parent organization, target kids or Hispanics/Latinos, or offer a higher level of local or world premieres, expenses tend to be lower.
How do community arts and leisure characteristics affect performance?
- Expenses tend to be higher for organizations in communities with higher levels of total arts dollar activity.
- Organizations tend to have lower expense levels when there is a high number of arts providers and artists in the community.
- Having more organizations that compete in the community-based, music, PAC, dance, and theatre sectors drives down expenses for all organizations in these sectors. In other words, the competition makes it more difficult for organizations in these sectors to grow in budget size.
How do socio-demographic characteristics of the community affect performance?
- Total expenses are higher for organizations in more densely populated communities and communities with a higher median age population, those with a higher socioeconomic level and higher levels of overall individual philanthropy, and where the percentage of Hispanic/Latino makes up a higher percentage of the population.
- Communities with proportionally more Asian Americans or African Americans tend to have smaller-budget arts organizations.
What impact does cultural policy have on performance?
- Higher overall state and federal grant activity in the local marketplace has no effect on total expenses.