501(c)(3) non profit grantmaker

On November 12, 2000, a headline on the front page of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution read, "Study finds Atlanta arts community trailing peers." A full-page story in Section A followed. This one headline challenged the city's cherished self-assessment as "cultural jewel of the South" and quietly affirmed the suspicions of many of its artists and cultural workers.

This is the story about the headline, the study, and the volunteer efforts of an incorporated ad hoc group that calls itself the Atlanta Arts Think Tank and that commissioned the landmark study.

Meetings are big business. Or, in other words, talk is not cheap. An economic impact study by Deloitte & Touche LLP demonstrated that conventions, expositions, and meetings generated $82 billion in total direct spending in 1994, supporting 1.57 million jobs.1 Meetings of associations and membership organizations, as opposed to corporate-sponsored events, account for the lion's share of this spending (68 percent). Many of these associations serve the arts and culture.

This article is based on a presentation to a gathering of grantees held in the fall 2000 and aimed at building arts participation. The meeting was sponsored by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

Last month I was signed up by a colleague to give a lecture to a class of graduate students at New York University studying arts management, all of whom were intending to pursue careers as managers and administrators in cultural institutions, and most of whom already had some experience in line management under their belts. My session was slotted into the finance elective.

David B. Pankratz, principal investigator and project manager, Celia O'Donnell, research assistant

2001, 80 pages. California Arts Council, 1300 I Street, Suite 930, Sacramento, CA 95814, 916-322-6555.

September 2001, 40 pages. Click here or contact Artist Trust, for a hard copy.

2001, 120 pages. The Rockefeller Foundation.

2000, 39 pages. Center for Arts and Culture, Washington D.C.

April, 2001, 45 pages. The Surdna Foundation.

More than Bit Players, commissioned by the Surdna Foundation, examines how Information Technology (IT) changes the way that organizations, including nonprofit organizations, work. The report offers suggestions for grantmakers who are assessing proposals for projects based on information technology and discusses ways to put costs and timing into perspective.