Major arts donors nearly doubled their funding to Chicago groups with diverse leaders and audiences over the past three years, but the authors of a new report worry that support is eroding.
Historically, Chicago’s Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) arts organizations received significantly lower foundational support than majority white organizations, according to a 2018 study by the group Enrich Chicago. That research showed the BIPOC organizations received 50 cents for every dollar given to predominantly white groups.
The donor picture has improved, according to Enrich, a local nonprofit focused on promoting racial equity in the arts. But Director Nina Sánchez said she’s worried about a backslide in the progress, now that COVID-19 relief dollars are drying up and some funders appear to be backing away from stated commitments to support racial equity they made in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd. A racial reckoning followed, with major philanthropies that support the arts pledging to examine their own giving and make it more equitable.
The new Enrich Chicago study released Tuesday, a follow-up to the 2018 report, highlighted three key findings:
- BIPOC arts organizations made up a larger portion of the grantee pool this time around — 39%, compared to 22% in 2013-15.
- BIPOC organizations received more than half of the dollars granted by foundations in the study between 2020 and 2023, nearly double the rate of funding from the prior period.
- Grants given to BIPOC organizations were also significantly more likely in this period to be unrestricted grant dollars, which gives groups the most flexibility to use where they need.
Sánchez said that the scale of funds available in the COVID-19 pandemic — and the removal of restrictions around those funds — was likely “a one-time event.”
“We had a whole host of issues we were facing as a society in that time,” Sánchez said. “There was a whole set of new programs that funders introduced into the sector in response to the COVID pandemic, in response to the racial reckoning we were having in the moment, and that was paired with government funding — both federal and local funds — to bring greater investment into the arts and culture sector as a whole.”
Sánchez said her group has already been hearing that the increased investment in diverse arts organizations is starting to go away. Which is why, Sánchez said, this study is important as a benchmark. She said the results lay down an even bigger challenge to foundations and ask the question: “What are you going to do now?”
Nationwide, companies like Meta, Google and Zoom have all made cuts to their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions last year, a wave of lawsuits began targeting corporate diversity programs.
Sánchez and her team are keenly aware of this shifting landscape. There are also all the additional challenges that are specific to arts organizations in this moment, like drawing audiences back in after the battering of the pandemic and rebuilding arts employment numbers from pandemic dips. Plus, locally, Sánchez says Enrich Chicago is closely watching the leadership change at the city’s main cultural planning arm, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed Clinée Hedspeth as the department’s commissioner in March, after abruptly firing her predecessor, Erin Harkey. Under Harkey’s leadership, there was a shift toward community-level events, rather than just focusing on downtown, which arts organizations applauded. Sánchez said it’s too early to assess whether that commitment will remain a priority of the department, but she is open minded.
“I am optimistic that we’re not going to experience the kind of backslide here in the city funding and practices that we might see with foundations or other national organizations, specifically around lifting up communities of color in Chicago,” she said.
Enrich’s new study, which was conducted by the Boston-based research firm TDC, surveyed both grantmakers and grantees and included interviews. In total, 18 grantmakers and 104 local arts organizations participated in the detailed surveys — a lower participation than researchers hoped for. The study accounts for about 30% of foundation arts funding in Chicago.
Among the study’s most significant findings was the shift toward unrestricted grants. According to the report, general operating support made up 71% of the grants to BIPOC organizations during the time period studied — that’s more than double the rate in 2013 to 2015. This is the “pinnacle” of the type of support organizations like to receive, said Sánchez.
“This is really critically important because this gives grantee organizations the agency and control to allocate the funds as they most need them to be allocated,” she said. “And those funds have fewer restrictions that can then be leveraged in the ways that the leadership of those institutions needed to be leveraged in real time, without facing potential loss of funding, or loss of renewal.”
But, investment goes beyond dollars and cents. At a meeting in April, arts leaders said foundations and their boards can go a step further and advocate on their behalf to other funders and individual donors.
The choices foundations make will be critical to whether diverse arts organizations in Chicago can maintain the growth they’ve been able to achieve since 2020, the study states.
Enrich plans to continue to evaluate the state of funding by conducting a similar survey every three years.
