“With little or no earned income coming in amid canceled performances and proscribed public gatherings, nonprofit cultural institutions across the nation are scrambling to attract a source of revenue that is often even more important to their bottom lines: philanthropy,” writes Robin Pogrebin in Monday’s (12/28) New York Times. “Now, as they anxiously await the results of their year-end appeals for donations, they are facing competition from pressing causes including hunger, health care and social justice…. Deborah F. Rutter, the president of the Kennedy Center in Washington, which ended its fiscal year on Sept. 30 with a $500,000 deficit compared to last year’s balanced budget, [said] ‘We are heavily dependent on contributed revenues to survive.’ … Ticket sales for performing arts groups in the United States were down 96.3 percent in November compared to that month last year.… A survey of performing arts administrators by the publication Inside Philanthropy found 45 percent reporting ‘reduced funder interest and resources as a result of the current shifting of funds for Covid and racial justice.’ ” The article includes comments from leaders at the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and other arts organizations.
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