PND Talk: Why Give to the Arts When People Are Starving?

PhilanTopic is on vacation this week. While we're away, we'll be sharing some of our favorite posts from the last year or three. This post was originally published in January 2014. Enjoy.

Long-time readers of Philanthropy News Digest may remember PND Talk, the message board we launched back in 2004 and maintained for the better part of a decade (until the launch of our new site in November).

During its heyday, PND Talk was a lively community frequented by a regular cast of generous, knowledgeable nonprofit professionals — people like Susan Lynn, Sheryl Kaplan, Rick Kosinski, Julie Rodda, Tony Poderis, and the late (and much missed) Carl Richardson and Linda Procopio.

Recently, some of us were reminiscing about PND Talk and the friends who made it such a valuable resource for so many years. And that got us thinking: Wouldn't it be great if we could share some of their advice and wisdom with our readers here at PhilanTopic?

Well, we can and we're going to — starting with the post below by author and fundraising consultant Tony Poderis, who for twenty years served as director of development for the world-famous Cleveland Orchestra. In it, Poderis addresses the longstanding dilemma faced by all development professionals in the nonprofit arts world: How do you justify philanthropic support for the arts and culture when so many people, here and around the world, struggle to secure the basic necessities of life? It's an interesting and provocative post, and we think many of you will want to add your thoughts in the comments section below....

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For those of you laboring — with love — in the nonprofit "field" of arts and culture, I can guess, with reasonable certainty (I come from that background, too), that you are challenged at times to justify your organization's existence, particularly at a time like this, when so many other, "more worthy" societal needs are crying to be met. How do you respond?

I've had to address that difficult question many times over many years. And for many arts and culture organizations, it continues to be a pressing one. I hope what follows is of some help the next time you are so challenged.

Why give to the arts when people are starving?

I actually saw that question scrawled among the marginal notes in a funding proposal for an orchestra. The notes were penned by a trustee of a grantmaking foundation during a meeting to review the proposal. Another trustee of the foundation, the one who presented the proposal on behalf of the orchestra, later shared the notes with me and asked what I could do to help counter his colleague's questioning remark.

Arts and cultural institutions are often forced into such defensive postures. They're accused of benefiting only the elite. The needs of the hungry, the homeless, the physically, mentally, and emotionally challenged are cited as being so overwhelming that something as frivolous as the arts should not be allowed or encouraged to draw from the limited pool of private funding available to support the work of nonprofit organizations. Those of us who work with and passionately support the arts are asked how we can justify "diverting" funds to the arts when such need exists.

The arts community does its best to provide data that shows its economic impact and benefit to the community — the number of people employed by arts and cultural organizations, tourists attracted to a downtown neighborhood, money spent on purchases from vendors, etc. Although those statistics tell a true story, they are not always compelling. Then there's the "quality-of-life" argument, but it, too, isn't always convincing — in part, we're told, because it is too subjective, too broad, too general.

I believe the correct response to the question is to stop being defensive and to start asserting the value of the arts with some questions of our own.

Would our communities be places that successful people able to support other needs call home if they didn't have orchestras, art museums, the ballet, opera, and theater? Without the quality-of-life amenities that arts and cultural organizations provide, would private companies, corporations, and firms be able to attract and retain people with critical skill sets — the same people, in many cases, who keep local businesses thriving and civic initiatives moving forward? Would startups and new enterprises — the kind of businesses most responsible for creating new, well-paying jobs — want to call our communities home? Without "old money" and new wealth to draw on, where would the philanthropy that helps support "more worthy" causes and organizations come from? Would hospitals, school districts, social-service agencies really benefit?

To me, the gist of the argument is simple. Without the arts, without cultural institutions, the people who provide the lion's share of support for civic and social needs in our communities would be far fewer in number. And that can't possibly be in anyone's best interest.

-- Tony Poderis