2015 Portfolio: Culture Across Communities

2015 Portfolio: Culture Across Communities is the Alliance’s first national report, covering the activities of 5,502 organizations in 11 metros: Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Twin Cities, and Washington DC. Collectively, these communities employ 906,000 paid and volunteer positions and spend $13 billion annually. The communities examined had a collective population of over 75 million residents, or 23.7% of the total population of the country. The report, which follows up and expands on the Alliance’s 2014 Portfolio research on the financial health of the arts and culture sector in Philadelphia, relies on data from the Cultural Data Project and is supported by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

The report reveals that, overall, cultural regions across the country are on the road to recovery from the Great Recession, with revenue, attendance and net assets all increasing from 2009-2012. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations were also able to rebuild savings and investments, increasing net assets 7.6% and endowments 13.7%. Profit margins in aggregate were also positive, with a slim aggregate surplus of 3.2% in the most recent fiscal year of the report (2012).

Read the press release (opens in new tab) for the 2015 Portfolio: Culture Across Communities here. For additional information and resources, please download a PDF of the report below.

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Portfolio 2015: Culture Across Communities is the result of the collective efforts of Cultural Alliance staff, the Cultural Data Project, Metro Metrics and the 11 metro regions and 5,502 organizations which contributed data.  The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation provided the core support for the report, with additional support provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the William Penn Foundation. 

Press coverage:
“A Tale of 11 Cities: New Data-Driven Assessment of the Nonprofit Arts Sector” (opens in new tab) – Nonprofit Quarterly
“Ups and downs on the national art front” (opens in new tab) – Philadelphia Inquirer
“Report: Arts Foundation Funding in D.C. Dropped 48 Percent Over a Three Year Period” (opens in new tab) – DCist
“Clevelanders are proud and generous art patrons, study shows” (opens in new tab) – Crain’s Cleveland Business