Fund For The Arts

Conclusion

Fund For The Arts meets the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability.

Purpose

Stated Purpose:

Fund for the Arts contributes to the overall health and well-being of the community by generating resources for, investing in, and supporting local arts, artists, and arts organizations.

Year, State Incorporated:
1949, KY

Programs

Fund for the Arts believes that art is a right, not a privilege because art is a fundamental expression of the human condition. It envisions a healthy and vibrant community where everyone embraces the art that exists in our lives every day, where everyone contributes to the well-being of the arts community, and where everyone belongs. Its mission is to contribute to the overall health and well-being of the community by generating resources for, investing in, and supporting the local arts, artists, and arts organizations.

The Fund builds a stronger community by investing in a broad range of arts, artists, and arts organizations and artistic programs across the region. It works with community leaders to best leverage the impact of the arts on community priorities such as equity and belonging, education, sustainability, and health and well-being. Beyond funding organizations, projects, and programs, it provides support through convening, capacity building, promotion, and advocacy. To achieve this, it provides numerous programs for grant-making, in-kind resource support, and strategic planning for organizations that help empower every resident in the city to see themselves as an artist and a part of the city’s artistic landscape.

The Fund continues to integrate equity and belonging further into the arts community as it helps build capacity and access through its programs. Programs and initiatives include:

ARTS IN INSTITUTIONS
This original Fund for the Arts initiative is designed to invest in nonprofit arts organizations in the Greater Louisville area via Sustaining Impact Grants. These grants provide unrestricted operating support to ensure the organization’s ongoing capacity to fulfill their mission and drive community impact. All SIG recipients are required to illustrate their equity plan and efforts to diversify within their organization, as well as their efforts to support equity and inclusion in the community. In 2024, the Fund invested $2.3 million in 27 arts nonprofit organizations throughout the Greater Louisville area with direct funding and support. 

Cultural Pass offers Greater Louisville families with children ages 0-21 access to arts and cultural activities, free of charge, all summer long. Cultural Pass is an innovative endeavor to promote a lifelong love of art and culture to young people, expand access to these organizations and arts providers, and improve summer learning in the community. On average, over 40,000 passes are distributed per summer, resulting in over 66,000 unique arts experiences for community members. For 10 years, Cultural Pass has been a unique collaboration between Fund for the Arts, Louisville’s Arts and Culture Alliance, Louisville Metro Government, Louisville Free Public Library, and additional regional library systems.

ARTS IN LEARNING 
Arts in Learning supports investments in curriculum-based arts programs in schools and other learning environments for all ages, expanding access and learning through arts for students across the Greater Louisville area. Research from Americans for the Arts shows that not only do students engaged in arts programming achieve at higher and more consistent levels, but that young people’s arts involvement drastically improves mental and physical health, graduation rates, and civic engagement. At the core of Arts in Learning is better cultural understanding, improved test scores, increased engagement, and critical learning skills. 

5x5 and Teacher Artist Grants (TAG) provide funding to K-12 teachers and schools to enhance their classroom instruction with arts programming and experiences throughout the Fund for the Arts service area. These opportunities complement what students learn in the classroom and meet them where they are in out-of-school programming. In 2024, over 25,000 students across 120 schools were given arts-based experiences through the 396 grants awarded.

ARTS IN NEIGHBORHOODS 
Arts in Neighborhoods supports programming and funding for community-centric arts events and experiences, community engagement activities, and mini-grants for existing event sponsorship. These neighborhoods are rich, vibrant communities where people play, work, and create. When the Fund partners alongside civic, arts, and neighborhood leaders to support and create intergenerational arts experiences within the neighborhoods themselves, it experiences higher outcomes in building and reinforcing strong, healthy neighborhoods. 

In 2024, Fund for the Arts worked with civic and neighborhood partners to cohost two free, multigenerational arts celebrations. Also, Fund for the Arts and 22 community spaces across Jefferson County facilitate the HeARTS: Healing Through the Arts program, a Metro government initiative in 22 community centers across the city, offering free, intergenerational arts programs and workshops designed to facilitate healing. Thirty-two Community Event Mini-Grants supported arts organizations, businesses, neighborhood associations, individual artists, groups of artists, non-arts nonprofits, and community-based organizations presenting multi-disciplinary, multi-generational, free gatherings with arts components in communities.

I AM AN ARTIST. 
I Am An Artist. is a campaign to inspire and empower individuals in the community to reclaim their artistic identity, often in ways they don’t expect. It seeks to remove thought barriers and restrictive understanding of what constitutes “art” and “artist,” and think expansively about art and the things people create in their everyday lives. The exhibition, opened in the Fund for the Arts lobby in 2023, celebrates just a few of the over 600,000 incredible artists in the Greater Louisville area: the people who live, work, play, and create together in the City of Artists. The Fund hopes that by showcasing and uplifting more community members and their many artforms, everyone will be empowered to find their art and feel confident saying to the world, “I Am An Artist.” 

The more people in the community who self-identify as artists, the more in-tune they become with the art that surrounds us, the more likely they are to participate through art in their neighborhoods, the more comfortable the entire community feels engaging in arts across the city, the more connected we become.

For the year ended June 30, 2024, Fund For The Arts's program expenses were:

Governance & Staff

Chief Executive
Andre Kimo Stone Guess, President and CEO

Chair of the Board
Ms. Nicole Yates

Chair's Profession / Business Affiliation
Associate Vice President, Passport Health Plan by Molina Healthcare

Board Size
39

Paid Staff Size
16

Fundraising

Method(s) Used:
Direct mail appeals, Telephone appeals, Invitations to fund raising events, Grant proposals, Internet, Planned giving arrangements, Appeals via Social Media (Facebook, etc.)

Tax Status

This organization is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is eligible to receive contributions deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes.

Financial

The following information is based on Fund For The Arts's audited financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024.

Source of Funds

Programs: 80% Fundraising: 13% Administrative: 6%