All arts organizations are NOT created equal
An Op-Ed in the L.A. Times yesterday sent me reeling, so I figured I’d hobble up to my soap box and try to work it out. The piece singles out educational and artistic organizations and I will only speak to my area of concern, which is the arts.
The author, Richard Reich (former secretary of Labor under President Clinton) states
“I’m all in favor of supporting the arts and our universities, but let’s face it: These aren’t really charitable contributions. They’re often investments in the lifestyles the wealthy already enjoy and want their children to have too. They’re also investments in prestige — especially if they result in the family name being engraved on the new wing of an art museum or symphony hall.”
What I would like to remind Mr. Reich is that not all arts organizations have the resources available to them that Lincoln Center does. To propose a blanket policy that lumps all arts organizations together regardless of budget size, mission, geographic and/or demographic scope and audience served is an overly simplistic solution to the problem (imho).
I completely agree that too many large arts organizations possess giant endowments, lavish facilities and employ probably twice the staff that is actually required to get their daily work done. Being a former employee of the Smithsonian Institution, I could go on and on about the acute waste I witnessed while in the employ of our federally chartered cultural and scientific Institution, but charity waste is not the issue here.
Proposing a revision of this kind to the tax code is upsetting to me for two reasons:
1. the arts and cultural community represents such a small piece of the charitable pie (Giving USA’s 2006 edition reports that only 5.2% of all charitable contributions in 2005 went to arts & cultural orgs);
2. overall support for the arts & cultural sector continues to decline each year (Giving USA’s 2006 edition also reports that contributions to arts & cultural orgs. declined by 3.4% in 2005 which is closer to 6.6% when adjusted for inflation).
When working in the arts, we are already faced with constantly justifying our existence to our audience, our donors, our grantors and the communities we serve. I fear what would become of many small to mid sized arts organizations if the power of a fully deductible donation were taken away from them…
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[...] All arts organizations are NOT created equal [...]