Cindy Adams is the president and CEO of GrantStation, one of TechSoup's donor partners, and is an expert on nonprofit grantseeking and fundraising. She is guest blogging for TechSoup on the current state of grantseeking for different types of organizations. Read her posts on the overall state of grantseeking and the state of community development organizations!

Despite Challenges, Arts Organizations Remain Optimistic

Despite many challenges, nonprofits retain a sense of optimism about the next six months according to the survey results cited in the State of Grantseeking 2011 (published in November 2011). And it gets particularly interesting when you start looking at the responses from arts, culture, and humanities groups.

For example, 71% of total survey respondents feel that they will receive the same number or more awards in the coming year, whereas 77% of arts, culture, and humanities-focused organizations believe that they will receive the same or increased numbers of awards. (On a side note: other organizational sector responses ranged from 66% to 74%). 

What does that mean? Arts, culture, and humanities- focused organizations comprise 10% of nonprofit organizations in the United States and 11% of the State of Grantseeking 2011 survey participants, so it wasn’t as if this survey inaccurately reflects the attitudes of these groups. Are arts organizations just optimistic or do these results foretell a trend?

State Grants Still Go to Arts and Humanities

The survey showed that these organizations receive more awards from private foundations than from any other grant source, which does not seem surprising, but compared to other organizations, arts, culture, and humanities-focused organizations received more state government grants (20% vs. 13%), which I do find surprising.

Considering the budget cuts we’ve witnessed over the past two or three years in almost every state, I wonder how this can be happening? Again, is this a trend? Or is it perhaps remnants of previous financial commitments? I’d love to hear your take on this.

However Funding Is Still a Struggle

As I think we all know, the economic conditions all nonprofits are forced to contend with these days has been particularly hard on arts, culture, and humanities organizations. As one survey respondent said: “The current state of the economy has forced the emphasis in our area to be on human needs. We are seeking arts funding, and it's difficult to compete with the needs for food and shelter for so many.”

But in a way, hasn’t this always been the case? I have been fundraising for over 40 years, and I can not remember a time when the arts haven’t struggled to garner support when up against social and human services. I am curious to know if people have come up with new ways to demonstrate the value of the arts, particularly in such a challenging economy?

Please email cadams@grantstation.com to receive the arts, culture and humanities fact sheet developed as a sub-set of the 2011 State of Grantseeking Survey.