Which arts charity/nonprofit(s) should I give money to?

September 6, 2023 1:15 PM

Mrs. Dr. Wu and I are drawing up our wills and trusts. We expect to have a little money to leave to some nonprofit arts organizations. Which ones do you recommend?

This is to satisfy the "if your whole family dies all at once in a tragic blimp accident" section of the wills. We'll leave some of our money and belongings to family, and would like to leave some to deserving, arts-focused charities. We're just not familiar enough with the nonprofit landscape to know which organizations are doing great work and could really use the money.

I am a firm believer in arts education as a tool for creative and critical thinking. I know less about the healing and developmental abilities of art, but am fully open to and supportive of those ideas, and other related ideas.

If YOU were to leave some money to one or more arts nonprofits, which ones would you choose?

I'm open to the idea of donating physical THINGS to such organizations, as well. Better a worthy institution have our stuff than have it go into the landfill. So those ideas are welcome, too.

posted by Dr. Wu to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Personally it's important to me to donate to someplace local that has an impact on my own community. You can use GuideStar to better understand the financials of any organization that you're interested in.
posted by anotheraccount at 1:27 PM on September 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

The smaller orgs where your donation will really make a difference are places you can visit and assess in your own community. I'd suggest taking a look at the local scene for whatever forms of art you like. Is there a local symphony? A community theater group? A local artists' gallery? A historical preservation society? If you google "art 501c(3) near me" you'll get a list of stuff to think about and start with. You can visit in person and talk to the director, who will tell you what they need and what you could fund.
posted by fingersandtoes at 1:57 PM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm of two minds: Either I want to impact my own community (hi, neighbor! I walked by your house recently and thought "hey, we still haven't met in person!") or I want to give to an organization that will help raise up those communities which do not share my privilege.

For my own (Petaluma), the first two that come to mind are the Petaluma Arts Center, because they have a wide variety of programs supporting the arts in the area, or the Petaluma River Park, because I believe that their work in showcasing local sculpture is going to help create more of a nexus for art in this area. Though I also like the annual Artistry in Wood show at the Museum of Sonoma County.

For raising up others, a friend of mine had dancers from the Destiny Arts Center in Oakland perform at his wedding, and I got on their mailing list from making a donation at that, and I get good vibes from them. Or if you run into Elece from PPSC occasionally (I do), I bet she'd have a local suggestion. (For a while Mrs. Straw and I were running a program to do crafts with kids who'd been through the COTS shelters, but we ran out of energy on that, not resources. But I bet PPSC is a fiscal sponsor for folks doing something similar these days...)
posted by straw at 2:06 PM on September 6, 2023

I agree with anotheraccount that you should check on the financials of any given non-profit organization. I've found the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer to be even more valuable than Guidestar as a valuable resource for evaluating non-profits, even if that means poring over IRS statements.

I have a deep love of the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, near you, who not only seek to maintain their classic cinema but also provide genuinely diverse, community-focused programming. They do not have an endowment, they rely on ticket and concession sales, local donors and local grants to keep going.
posted by eschatfische at 3:31 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Agree with finding something local that resonates with you.

We give lots of money to "big-name" groups every year, Heifer, Doctors without Borders, Propublica, ACLU, etc. But those just don't feel as good as our friends, (husband is from Tanzania), who are building schoolhouses, and wells and such for his home village. And my soccer mate's neighbor, who has a daughter, (I hope still), a severe genetic disease, and has created a space/camp/playarea for disabled children, Seattle PlayGarden. They do a great job. Give them $5...

My mom was the first female camp director in a Kansas City city camp. And always went on and on about how much she was proud of doing sessions with cerebral palsy kids. So I feel obligated to carry that on. Hope I can spring for a permanent scholarship program in her name before I pass. Inflation is a bummer though.
posted by Windopaene at 4:11 PM on September 6, 2023

There are so many children who aren't able to study music because their parents don't have the funds. This is an unfairness that upsets me a lot. Music is how people can connect when, as is overwhelmingly the case, strong feelings of grief, joy, longing, or bitterness cannot be handled with words. It gives us a way to deal with primal experiences. Without it, or some equally powerful yet equally undervalued alternative, people are just lost, frustrated, and cut off from what makes life bearable for so many.

With it, people gain so, so much.

There seem to be more than one organization in your area helping bring music education to people who couldn't otherwise afford it. There maybe other organizations in other parts of the US that need funds even more than those near you. I know there is at least one in Chicago; there may be one in the town where either you or your wife grew up, if it was different from where you are now.

Please consider seeking one of those out. This is a way of fostering the arts that helps bring more justice and less insanity to the world.
posted by amtho at 8:03 PM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

I give to local Seattle arts organizations like Meany Center and Garfield HS Jazz program, and Third Coast Percussion, a Chicago-based national performing/composer ensemble that does a lot of education, commissions of composers (especially from non-white-males), and mentoring of emerging performers and composers. Check and see if your locality has any umbrella arts incubator organizations like Seattle’s Arts Fund.
posted by matildaben at 9:22 PM on September 6, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you all for the suggestions and ideas!
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:13 AM on September 7, 2023