Grantmakers in the Arts is seeing the nation’s cultural community come together to advocate for our residents and for the arts and humanities in response to our federal government’s attacks on our most vulnerable residents and on their creativity.  Stay updated with GIA’s Community Resources on Our Federal Government’s Actions.  

“No one’s doing anything,” is a remark I hear too often. Not only is it not true; it is an excuse to justify the accuser’s passivity. GIA supports the great work being done by so many of our colleagues in the field as we share out in this resource page.  

Foundations are standing together and stepping up their funding in light of the financial impacts of this federal government’s attacks against nonprofit organizations. Foundations are also committing to increasing their support, using trust-based philanthropy principles and doing so in concert with the field they serve.  

But philanthropy can only mitigate the impacts of bad government policy. As Grantmakers in the Arts has said in Inside Philanthropy, all the wealthiest philanthropic institutions and individuals combined cannot make up for government investment in our communities and their creativity. This is especially true in rural and remote areas where public investment is the primary — if not the only — means of support of our ability to enrich our hearts, minds, and communities through creative self-expression.  

These are all examples of why funders must support organizations’ ability to advocate and lobby. Foundations can support nonprofit organizations’ advocacy and lobbying as we explain in GIA’s statement on Public Policy and Advocacy and GIA’s article, We Can All Advocate (and Many of Us Can Support Lobbying). 

Grantmakers in the Arts calls on our elected representatives to restore public support for the arts and humanities and to support the safety, health and education of all our nation’s residents. We applaud our grantmaking members who support nonprofits’ ability to advocate and/or lobby for changes to public policy and invite all other grantmakers to join them in doing so.  Thank you.