GIA Blog

An April 2011 report by the American Association of Museums outlines the major findings of a survey completed by 383 AAM members. Drawing from a cross-section of U.S. museum and collection types, the authors of U.S. Museums Continue to Serve Despite Stress identify a series of common practices and challenges:

David Haas, chair of the William Penn Foundation, today announced the appointment of Jeremy Nowak, PhD as president of the Foundation. Nowak is expected to begin his duties on June 27.

In announcing the appointment, Haas said “Jeremy has been a long-time partner of the Foundation and understands and believes in our work. He provides the combination of expertise, innovative thinking, integrity, and quality we’ve been seeking to lead us moving forward.”

From Forbes.com

Involving children and grandchildren in philanthropic activities plays an important role in preparing younger generations for wealth and responsibility. Multigenerational discussions about charitable giving plans and priorities can go a long way toward ensuring the successful transfer of wealth and the continuity of values.

By the year 2030, there will be 78 million Americans over the age of 65. This is a staggering statistic for several service sectors like health, housing, recreation and the arts.

The saga of the Philadelphia Orchestra continues as plans for filing chapter 11 are made. It is the orchestra management's position that the $140 million in orchestra and Academy of Music endowment is donor-restricted, earmarked to remain forever in endowment, and is therefore untouchable. Others are not convinced.

In an article for the Consumer Health Foundation's publication Connections, Gay Hanna, executive director of the National Center for Creative Aging, outlines several types of integrated arts/humanities/medical programs, including arts therapy, creative aging programs, and the introduction of arts and humanities curricula into medical training.

Culture Connects All: Rethinking Audiences in Times of Demographic Change, a benchmark report published by Partners for Livable Communities and funded by MetLife Foundation, offers new audience-building opportunities for arts and cultural organizations to engage two of America’s fastest growing populations: older adults and immigrant populations.

From Surdna Foundation:

After 17 years of exceptional leadership, Ellen B. Rudolph has decided to leave her position as Program Director of the Surdna Foundation's Thriving Cultures Program on September 30, 2011. Over the next year, however, Ellen will assist Surdna with a leadership transition and manage three specific assignments related to the future development of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship program (SATF), and an early assessment of the Foundation's initial grantmaking in Community Driven Design.

(4-15-2011) Related to yesterday's post on the tax code overhaul is Liz Skinner's story in Investment News, in which she reports an uptick in charitable donations inspired by the December 2010 tax deal (extending the Bush-era tax cuts) and the potential limits (28% of the dollars donated) on charitable deductions under President Obama's proposed plan.

Read the article here.

(4-14-2011) President Obama's deficit reduction strategy includes a plan to convert mortgage interest and charitable contribution deductions into limited tax credits.

Richard Rubin, writing for Bloomberg does a thorough job of capturing the complexity of the tax debate here.