Natalie Giannos

Publication Date

Winter 2022

Abstract

As the role of arts nonprofits shift to increasingly serve communities, away from the Wunderkammer model of decades past, fundraising has remained the same. The time is now to assess the implications of the sector’s current model, in which fundraisers rely on a small number of big donations to keep organizations afloat. This paper considers the current state of fundraising for American arts nonprofits: outdated, exclusionary, and above all else, limitative. It offers three case studies that illustrate the ramifications of the major gifts model. Finally, it proposes some solutions, unravelling the commonly held belief that organizations today have little choice but to prioritize their donors’ interests over their own.

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