In Tuesday’s (10/13) Chronicle of Philanthropy, Debra E. Blum writes, “While many museums and other cultural institutions face debt, shrinking donations, and investments losses, one of the nation’s top credit-rating agencies calls the sector stable and resilient. In a paper released this week, credit analysts at Standard & Poor’s say they believe that the nearly three dozen nonprofit cultural institutions the company rates will ‘manage their businesses reasonably well during this recession,’ just as they have weathered past economic downturns. They say that while belt-tightening may become the norm for the organizations, they will likely benefit from an increase in regional tourism, a gain in repeat visits, and government stimulus money for education and science programs. ‘They may also be able to weather the storm because they have a diverse revenue base and other mitigating factors,’ says Jessica Matsumori, one of the paper’s authors, who describes the 33 cultural organizations that Standard & Poor’s rates as ‘the cream of the crop.’ ”
Posted October 16, 2009
