New Report Provides First Comprehensive
Look at Foundation Support for the Humanities
Humanities' Share of Foundation Giving Slips Over Past Decade
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here to download the report.
New York, NY, June 21, 2004– Giving by private foundations to the
humanities more than doubled during the past decade, according to a new study
conducted and published by the Foundation Center in collaboration with the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The report, Foundation Funding for the
Humanities: An Overview of Current and Historical Trends, finds that
funding for fields such as art history, history and archeology, languages and
linguistics, area studies, and the humanistic social sciences increased two and
one-half times (149.8 percent) from $134.1 million in 1992 to $335 million in
2002.
At the same time the report notes that, despite the overall
increase, some scholarly disciplines actually lost ground over the ten year
period. Support for the humanities grew more slowly than overall foundation
giving during this period (up 199.8 percent), and the share of giving for the
humanities slipped from 2.5 percent in the early 1990s to 2.1 percent in 2002.
"The humanities face several challenges in the current funding
arena," noted Loren Renz, vice president for research at the Foundation Center.
"The most important of these challenges is to actively engage new donors and
foundations and to help them understand how the humanities fit into their
broader giving priorities. We hope that this report will assist humanities
organizations, scholars, and funders in making that case."
"While we are gratified by the rise in overall giving, there is
still cause for concern about the lack of support for scholarly research and
for such core disciplines as literature and the study of languages, two fields
that have witnessed alarming declines in actual support" said Leslie Berlowitz,
Chief Executive Officer of the Academy.
Report Includes Brief History of Foundation Support
for the Humanities
Foundation Funding for the Humanities includes an essay
providing "Historical Perspectives on Foundation Support for the Humanities."
Prepared by James Allen Smith, a noted historian and scholar of philanthropy,
this commentary identifies the principal grantmakers and trends influencing
foundation support for the humanities from the start of the twentieth century
through today.
Report Documents Trends in Foundation Giving for
Humanities
Foundation Funding for the Humanities focuses on trends in
grantmaking from 1992 through 2002 based on an analysis of all of the grants of
$10,000 or higher awarded by more than 1,000 of the nation's largest private
and community foundations. Among these funders, 683 made 3,296 humanities
grants in 2002. The report also documents changes in giving for the humanities
by humanities subfield or discipline, recipient type, funder and recipient
location, and type of support. In addition, the report provides a ranking of
the top 25 U.S. foundations by giving for the humanities in 2002.
Among other key findings from the report:
Top Funders – The number of humanities funders grew by
close to two-fifths, yet five foundations provided a quarter of grant dollars.
From 1992 to 2002, the overall number of larger foundations included in the
Foundation Center's annual grants sample increased only slightly, while the
number that funded the humanities grew by 37 percent to 683. At the same time,
five foundations-the Andrew W. Mellon, Righteous Persons, Ford, and Annenberg
foundations and the Packard Humanities Institute-provided just over one-quarter
of 2002 humanities grant dollars. Three of these foundations-Mellon, Ford, and
Annenberg-made humanities grants in at least ten years from 1992 through 2002
that totaled at least $1 million or represented 25 percent or more of their
giving. Other humanities funders meeting this criteria included the
Rockefeller, Henry Luce, Kresge, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, Lynde and
Harry Bradley, and Samuel H. Kress foundations, the Pew Charitable and J. Paul
Getty trusts, and the Lilly Endowment.
Giving Focus – Historical activities and humanities-related
museum activities accounted for the largest shares of giving. Two
humanities subfields-historical activities and humanities-related museum
activities-together captured 49 percent of 2002 humanities grant dollars and
over 54 percent of grants. The other principal areas of humanities giving
included art history, history and archeology, humanities-related arts, culture,
and media, humanities-related social sciences, and multidisciplinary humanities
activities. Between 1998 and 2002, growth was extremely uneven across
subfields. The rise of new and large funders with narrow interests in the
humanities and the impact of several exceptionally large grants all contributed
to changes in the patterns of humanities giving. In addition, levels of support
have dropped for some of the least funded disciplines, such as classical and
foreign languages.
Future Outlook – The long-term health of the humanities
field requires an active effort to cultivate new funders. A modest
recovery in the nation's economic fortunes should help to boost diminished
foundation assets and encourage measured increases in giving for the humanities
and other fields over the next several years. Nonetheless, the long-term health
of the humanities field will require an active effort on the part of humanities
funders and leaders in the field to educate grantmakers about the needs and
opportunities presented by the humanities and to encourage them-especially some
of the tens of thousands of foundations formed in the last decade-to include
the humanities among their giving priorities.
Humanities Funding Resources
Foundation Funding for the Humanities was prepared by the
Foundation Center with the support and collaboration of the American Academy of
Arts & Sciences. The report can be accessed at no charge from the
"Researching Philanthropy" area of the Foundation Center's Web site,
www.fdncenter.org/research, or from the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences' Web site, www.amacad.org.
Publication of Foundation Funding for the Humanities comes
during Funding for Arts Month, a Foundation Center-wide initiative spanning the
month of June that features a range of special programs, new resources, and Web
site content focused on giving to nonprofit arts, culture, media, and
humanities organizations. Visit
www.fdncenter.org/focus/arts for schedules of events, listings of
publications, and information on other resources.
ABOUT THE FOUNDATION CENTER
The Foundation Center's mission is to strengthen the nonprofit
sector by advancing knowledge about U.S. philanthropy. To achieve its
mission, the Center collects, organizes, and communicates information on U.S.
philanthropy; conducts and facilitates research on trends in the field;
provides education and training on the grantseeking process; and ensures public
access to information and services through its Web site, print and electronic
publications, five library/learning centers, and a national network of
Cooperating Collections. Founded in 1956, the Center is the nation's leading
authority on philanthropy and is dedicated to serving grantseekers,
grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780
by John Adams and other scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science
which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free,
independent, and virtuous people." Its current membership of over 3,900 Fellows
and 600 Foreign Honorary Members includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and
fifty Pulitzer Prize winners. Drawing on the wide-ranging expertise of its
membership, the Academy conducts thoughtful, innovative, non-partisan studies
on international security, American institutions, education, and the
humanities. This report is part of the Academy's Initiative for the Humanities
and Culture, a major ongoing project that assesses the challenges and prospects
for the humanities in America.
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