The San Diego Foundation Announces Participation in Communities Advancing the Arts, a $500,000 Partnership Funded by The James Irvine Foundation

For immediate release:
December 9, 2004

Contact:
Laura Simanton, 619-814-1362
Lsimanton@sdfoundation.org

SAN DIEGO, CA – December 9, 2004 —The James Irvine Foundation today announced a set of grants totaling $3.5 million in connection with a new initiative, Communities Advancing the Arts. Eight community foundations in California, including The San Diego Foundation, will each receive grants for two parallel programs: regranting programs to local arts and culture organizations and capacity-building programs within the community foundations to increase support for the arts through donor education and cultivation activities.

The San Diego Foundation will receive $500,000 over three years.

The eight community foundations selected for grants are: Community Foundation for Monterey County, Community Foundation Silicon Valley, Humboldt Area Foundation, Orange County Community Foundation, Santa Barbara Foundation, The San Diego Foundation, San Luis Obispo County Community Foundation, and Sonoma County Community Foundation.

Grants are payable over three years, with amounts dependent on the foundation’s capacity, assets, and populations served. The grants include a matching component, which requires that each foundation raise a targeted amount of funds for the arts from new donors before receiving third-year funding from Irvine.

“Communities Advancing the Arts brings together The Irvine Foundation’s commitment to community foundations and our belief in the importance of the arts to all Californians,” says James E. Canales, Irvine’s president and CEO. “Now more than ever, arts organizations need to build a broader and more diverse base of support from their communities. We are extremely pleased to fund these community foundations through this initiative and look forward to helping them build a stronger arts funding network throughout California.”

Bob Kelly, president and CEO of The San Diego Foundation said, “We applaud The James Irvine Foundation for its vision in enhancing the important work of community foundations throughout California as they build ongoing support for arts and culture.”

“This partnership illustrates the role The San Diego Foundation’s year-old Arts & Culture Working Group was created to play in San Diego County. The Working Group was developed to attract important new support for San Diego’s arts and culture community from local, regional and national sources. This complements The Foundation’s work to help charitably-minded donors build and preserve enduring assets that then go to support arts and culture nonprofit organizations.”

Communities Advancing the Arts addresses a shift in arts funding in California and nationwide. Budget constraints and other factors have reduced the level of public funding for the arts, which is increasingly dependent upon support from private sources, including private foundations such as Irvine. Irvine awarded grants of more than $14 million in 2004 to California arts organizations and is one of the largest arts funders in the state.

State funding for the arts in California has plummeted in recent years, from more than $17 million in 2002-03 to $1 million in 2003-04. California ranks last (50th) in the nation for state per capita arts funding, spending less than three cents per person annually. The national average is $1.10 per capita for public arts funding annually, while in Europe the average is $5 or more per capita.

California community foundations have accounted for a higher share of total foundation giving in California than do community foundations nationally. California community foundations represented 12 percent of giving by all of the state’s foundations in 2000 and 2001, compared with a national average of eight percent.*

As of 2001, California was home to more than 30 community foundations that are among the largest in the nation, with total assets of more than $5.2 billion.* Much of these assets are held in donor-advised funds that allow donors to set aside assets for charitable giving and then request grants to charitable organizations over time. Donor-advised funds, which are also available from commercial financial institutions, are among the fastest-growing giving vehicles in the United States today and outnumber private foundations. It is a specific strategy of Communities Advancing the Arts to encourage more donors to use their donor-advised fund assets to support arts organizations in their communities.

Communities Advancing the Arts was announced December 7, 2004 as part of $20.2 million in new grants from The Irvine Foundation, in support of its mission of expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful, and inclusive society.

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About The San Diego Foundation:
Founded in 1975, The San Diego Foundation is San Diego’s largest nonprofit foundation and leading philanthropic organization. A broad-purpose community foundation, it is built by the people in the community through establishing funds and endowments at The Foundation. The mission of The Foundation is to improve the quality of life in the San Diego Region by promoting and increasing responsible and effective charitable giving. The Foundation today manages over $424 million in over 1050 different funds, of which $200 million are in permanent endowments funds that will benefit the San Diego area in perpetuity.

Last year, The San Diego Foundation distributed more than $47 million, almost a million dollars a week, back into nonprofit organizations serving the San Diego County area.

About The San Diego Foundation’s Arts & Culture Working Group:
The Arts & Culture Working Group was formally established as a new, dedicated program of The Foundation in September, 2003. Under the leadership of Chair Roger Cornell, MD, the Arts & Culture Working Group seeks to focus energy and expertise on increasing charitable giving to arts and culture organizations in order to promote the long-term stability and vitality of this important sector of the community. Julie Fry leads The Foundation’s efforts as its Director of Arts & Culture Analysis & Strategy.