When you donate to any of 1,300 arts, heritage, and humanities nonprofits and then make an equal gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust, 100 percent of the matching gift will be returned when you file your taxes.
Only in Oregon can we double our impact on local culture without spending an extra dime. Yet many longtime supporters of arts, heritage, and humanities nonprofits still don’t know about this unique opportunity.
To help raise awareness, Oregon illustrators, animators, writers, and musicians banded together to create a wonderful 1 1/2-minute video that puts smiles on viewers’ faces every time we show it.
An innovative public-private fundraising and grantmaking program, the Oregon Cultural Trust relies on donations to create the funds for its annual grant cycle. The Trust recently announced $1.47 million in statewide grants benefiting 57 cultural nonprofits, 40 county and tribal coalitions and five state cultural partners. Those grants are made possible entirely by donors who gave to the Trust and to any number of Oregon’s 1,300 cultural nonprofits to earn Oregon’s unique cultural tax credit. The cultural tax credit makes Trust gifts free and gives donors the power to create grants that benefit the cultural nonprofits they already value.
Spread the word and keep Oregon a culturally vibrant place to live. It’s easy to donate at www.culturaltrust.org.
The Arts Build Community in Oregon: New ABC Grants Announced
The Oregon Arts Commission announced 24 awards totaling $112,000 in the 16th year of its Arts Build Communities (ABC) grant program. These awards support arts projects and innovative partnerships that deliver community-based solutions for local issues and needs.
“Oregon’s arts non-profit and creative sectors use the arts to improve lives in communities of every size across the state,” said Julie Vigeland, who chaired the grant review panel. “This year’s funded projects reflect the work, planning and partnership developed to respond to some of the most pressing concerns in Oregon. Working with educational, medical, social service and economic development agencies, arts organizations are using their own skills and expertise to broaden the impact of the arts.”
Read about the selected projects: http://www.oregonartscommission.org/sites/www.oregonartscommission.org/files/news/12-5-11%20FY12%20ABC%20Grants%20Announced_0.pdf
Artists Fuel Oregon’s Economy: New Round of Career Opportunity Grants Announced
Fourteen competitive Career Opportunity Grants totaling $31,505 were awarded in the second of four founding rounds this year. The awards support individual artists who seek to take advantage of important opportunities to advance their careers through the development of artistic, business or professional skills. This round includes considerable support to artists for visual arts exhibits in national and international venues, as well as additional support for mid-career visual artists from The Ford Family Foundation.
Read about all of the artists: http://www.oregonartscommission.org/sites/www.oregonartscommission.org/files/news/12-16-11%20Career%20Opp%20TFFF%20Grants%20Anncd%20%282%29.pdf
Congress Adopts Obama Levels of Funding for National Endowments for Arts and for Humanities
Earlier this month, the US Senate passed by a vote of 67-32 the fiscal year 2012 appropriations legislation to carry federal funding through next September for the agencies that had been left without secure funding for the fiscal year—including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
The day before, December 16, the House had passed the measure, 296-121, with 147 Republicans joined by 149 Democrats voting in favor of the omnibus budget bill. The bill provides $146.255 million for the NEA (and for the National Endowment for the Humanities), the same level requested by the Obama administration and above the $135 million passed by the House in August, but less than the $155 million—the 2011 spending level—approved for 2012 by the Senate Appropriations Committee in September.
The House-Senate conference report embodying the funding agreement provides details and policy directives beyond the bill’s language, including a restatement of the congressional mandate to allot 40 percent of grant funds to the states in the budget for the NEA.
