In these tough economic times, the Foundation Center knows how important it is to the arts community that information on sources of funding is readily available. To help arts organizations identify foundations that are interested in funding arts and culture, the Center has developed a special set of interactive maps and charts that will be available at our web site throughout October during Funding for Arts month. The maps show the distribution by location of grantmakers that have particular areas of arts and culture among their fields of interest. Users can drill down to foundation snapshots that provide key basic information drawn from Foundation Directory Online for each grantmaker in our database with an interest in the arts. The charts show the number of grantmakers with funding interests in specific subcategories of arts and culture.

Identifying Grantmaker Fields of Interest
Grantmaker fields of interest, or subject categories, are assigned by Foundation Center staff for all grantmakers that identify specific giving priorities in their public documents (e.g., annual reports, mission statements, press releases, etc.) or through direct contact with the Foundation Center, including survey responses, e-mails, and telephone calls. In addition, Foundation Center staff assign subject categories for all other grantmakers whose annual total giving averages $20,000 or more, based on an analysis of their giving patterns over the latest few years. A subject term is assigned if a grantmaker consistently disburses 10 percent or more of its total giving to benefit a particular field or subject area, such as the performing arts or historic preservation. Self-reported grantmaker information takes precedence over all other sources of data. Grantmakers have an opportunity to update or revise their Foundation Center entry and assigned subject terms on a regular basis.

To Use the Maps and Charts
To use the maps, click on a state to drill down to see the distribution of grantmakers by county, city or ZIP code. Click to the next level to see a list of grantmakers in that region. Click on a grantmaker name to view basic information about that grantmaker. You can narrow your search by selecting individual or multiple subjects under the category of arts and culture.

To use the charts, each bar states the number of grantmakers in each subject under the major category of arts and culture. Click on a bar to see a more detailed breakdown of that subject and the number of grantmakers within each subject. The charts do not provide grantmaker names due to the volume of the broader arts subjects. Grantmakers may fund in more than one area of arts and culture and therefore may be counted more than once.