The Latest in Funding Resources

This is a follow-up to my posting on February 16. Massachusetts foundations are reporting that they are giving less this year. They include the Boston Foundation, John Merck Fund, Hyams Foundation, George Alden Trust, Amelia Peabody Foundation, and the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Charitable Foundation. Nonprofit organizations that depend on foundation support are rightly concerned. This is going to take considerable time and effort to find individual foundations and donors who are reacting to the current crisis by giving more now and less when times are better. They do exist, but it is going to take time and energy to find them. For those organizations that are involved in the arts, there may be some hope. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. Forty percent of this will be distributed to state arts agencies and sixty percent will be awarded on a competitive basis. For more information go to the NEA website and seekout the page entitled recovery. Try this link: www.nea.gov/recovery/index.html. The NEA has been given a $10.3 million increase in its budget for next year; its current funding, not including the stimulus package is$144.7 million. Organizations should also check out www.grants.gov for other possible government funding sources.