Arts, Culture & Humanities

Undertaking the biggest transformation in its 21-year history, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has received a historic $9 million donation from Chris and Sara Connor to create the Connor Theater. When it opens this summer, the theater will house an epic signature experience featuring arena-quality sound, larger-than-life video screens and fan interactivity that will…

Nonprofit arts, education and youth programs are are about to get a cash infusion from SnapChat. SnapChat and its co-founders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, have pledged to donate up to 13 million shares of Class A common stock over the next 15 years to 20 years to a foundation to support arts, education and…

The Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been awarded a three-year, $16 million grant from the Open Philanthropy Project to support the center's work on strengthening health security and public health preparedness. The grant will focus on strengthening the understanding of and response to serious biological risks;…

The University of Notre Dame says it has received a $25 million donation toward the new music building that is under construction at the school's football stadium. University officials say the music building is among three structures being added to the exterior of Notre Dame stadium as part of the $400 million Campus Crossroads project.…

Michael Govan is spearheading the Los Angeles County Museums of Art's massive $600 million capital campaign. This campaign has been recurring subject at Inside Philanthropy, replete with dramatic headlines ("Fundraising on a Tightrope") and questions surrounding the wisdom of such ambitious projects. Each project, of course, is unique. Risk is relative. On paper, the Crystal Bridges…

“A challenge has been made.” Those are the big, bold words written across the front of this Barnes Foundation upgrade appeal’s oversized envelope, practically daring donors to open the package. The mailing—inviting the foundation’s closest and most dedicated supporters to advance their memberships to a higher level—was designed inside and out to make recipients feel special...

When Congress passed legislation in December 2014 to establish a congressional commission to study the feasibility of and recommend a site for the National Women’s History Museum, there was a catch. The commission and museum would both need to be financed with private money. No Washington, D.C, 
museum had ever been asked to underwrite its own congressional commission...

As I mentioned in a recent post, IMPACTS is working on a social media metric that goes beyond thinking about vanity metrics such as likes, comments and shares—numbers that are good to have at high levels, but have variable impacts on our bottom lines of financial solvency or mission execution. We are working to create…

Nonprofit art organizations in Maryland contributed $1.16 billion to the state's economy in the 2015 fiscal year, a 10 percent increase from the year before, according to the annual economic impact report from the Maryland State Arts Council. The number of full-time jobs the state's nonprofit arts sector supported also grew by 20 percent, to…

Remember a couple of years ago, when it seemed like we were all one big happy family, Americans of every age and political stripe, joined in common pursuit? Millions of us spent that summer pouring buckets of ice water on our heads, to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's…