The current climate of corporate downsizing, changing foundation priorities and reduced government funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and other agencies, make individual donor contributions to the arts increasingly important. Moreover, as African Americans and other ethnic and racial minority groups become a larger percentage of the total U.S. population, understanding the different philanthropic traditions and patterns of giving of these groups will be critical in expanding the base of individual contributions to the arts.

This essay is divided into four sections. The first section explores the evolution of African American philanthropy and its unique development in American society. The second section reviews why arts organizations have become interested in African American philanthropy and the limited statistical data available on individual African American and white charitable giving to the arts. The third section examines the difficulties that some arts organizations have had in soliciting contributions from arts organizations and other methods that might be considered. The paper concludes with some broader observations about the promise and potential of African American giving to the arts.

Before continuing, it is important to discuss several methodological shortcomings inherent in this essay as well as to underscore the importance of certain hypotheses that are presented. This paper draws on a limited range of existing statistical and anecdotal research on giving to the arts. As a result, data that were originally compiled to answer entirely different questions are utilized here regardless of issues such as comparable definitions of the arts or adequate sample size (particularly of African Americans). This first issue cannot be understated. Many of the studies refer to arts, culture and humanities as a single catch-all category or lump the arts into another category due to its small percentage. While unlikely, the possibility exists that using a specific and consistent definition of the arts and examining individual giving to that specific definition might yield different conclusions.

There also are two conceptual issues that are imbedded in the discussion of African American philanthropy that are worth noting. First, African American philanthropy is dynamic. Its defining characteristic over time has been the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and conditions. As a result, examining past and current trends does not necessarily provide an accurate prediction of future directions. Second, African American philanthropy has largely been communal in nature - a large number of people giving relatively modest gifts. While the elimination of overt discrimination has enabled a significant number of African Americans to increase their annual income and accumulate wealth, it is unclear to what extent the tradition of group giving has been affected by these trends. (p. 1-3)

[This essay was prepared for Creative America: A Report to the President by the President's
 Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. That report describes the system of support for
 cultural life in the today.]

CONTENTS
Introduction.
The evolution of African American philanthropy.
Giving to the arts.
Soliciting African American contributors.
Final observations.

This essay was prepared for Creative America: A Report to the President by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. That report describes the system of support for cultural life in the today.