Giving to arts, culture, and humanities 13

The arts, culture, and humanities subsector received an estimated $12.79 billion in contributions in 2008.

This is a drop of 6. 4 percent from the estimated total for 2007 (­ 9. 9 percent adjusted for inflation).

Arts, culture, and humanities giving is 4 percent of total estimated giving.

The subsector for arts, culture, and humanities includes performing arts; museums of all kinds; historical societies; humanities organizations; and media and communication charities, including public broadcasting. Religious radio, television, and publishers are in the religion subsector.

 

Giving USA findings for giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations, 2008 The Giving USA estimate is based on a tested model incorporating economic variables and on the historical record of giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations. The economic variables include changes in stock market prices, personal income, and other economic trends. 1 Giving USA will revise the esti­ mates of giving to arts, culture, and humanities and all other subsectors as more data become available. The final figures will be based on data compiled from IRS Forms 990 by the National Center for Charitable Statistics, which are expected to be available in about two years.

Trends in giving to arts, culture, and humanities Using Giving USA data, two different ways of measuring trends in giving to arts, culture, and humanities organiza­ tions are presented. The first looks at giving to these organizations during recession years. The second shows the trend in giving to this subsector over

time, measured per household (includ­ ing all arts, culture, and humanities donations divided by all households).

In prior recession years from 1968 to 2006, giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations averaged an inflation­adjusted increase of 1. 8 percent from the prior year. The range was from a decrease of over 13 percent in 1970 to a growth of nearly 14 percent just one year earlier, in 1969. Certainly, at least part of the decline in 1970 can be attributed to the substantial rise in giving in 1969. Giving to this subsector increased (adjusted for inflation) in seven of 11 recession years from 1968 to 2006.2

Using a standardized measure of giving to arts, culture, and humanities organi­ zations allows us to compare contribu­ tions to this subsector over time. One standard measure is to estimate giving per household. To do this, the sum of contributions from all sources (not just households) is divided by the number of households in the country. Table 1 shows the results for giving to arts,