The Work Of New York Foundation For The Arts

The New York Foundation for the Arts was first founded in 1971 with a goal and a drive to enable artists, aspiring artists and aspiring art organizations to survive through the difficult times that marked the beginning of their career. Though it was first created with the intent of supporting those within the state of New York, it has since evolved to help those throughout the country to achieve their dreams. For more information on what they do you can check out their website here.

The New York Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit organization, formerly known as the National Arts Center, which presents numerous programs in the fields of theater, dance, visual arts and music. It is located at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition, the organization supports various other arts-related activities and endeavors throughout the country and world. It was established by a group of women who felt that women’s development through music and the performing arts was being hindered by gender prejudice and discrimination.

How They Help

There are four separate programs used by this New York foundation to assist those who are most in need.

Fiscal Sponsorship
Online Resources
Learning/Professional Development
Awards/Cash Grants

The fiscal sponsorship program is the most desirable with artists and art organizations receiving continued financial support, encouragement and resources to ‘make it big.’ Next is online resources, which provide listings of studio spaces available, job postings and internship openings. With learning and professional development opportunities these artists can receive further training in their chosen area and continuing education. Finally, awards and cash grants help to make pursuing the dream more fiscally possible with financial support given for a variety of different reasons including winning contests and displays.

In addition to the performing arts programs, the New York Foundation for the Arts also hosts a variety of workshops and conferences each year. Some of these include musicological conferences and workshops, which are very helpful for professionals who wish to further their knowledge of opera. Other workshops offered are focused on preparing students to enter the world of the performing arts after high school. There are also various seminars that are focused on promoting new musical acts, musicians and singers in the performing arts.

What You Should Know

The New York Foundation for the Arts is considered an excellent charity to donate to. Recent review and evaluation of the money donated to the charity has found that over 91% of all money donated is used to fund the programs that directly assist artists and art organizations. This leaves less than 7% to be used for administrative expenses and fundraising costs. More information available here.

When it comes to funding, approximately 90% of all monetary support brought in is individual contributions, gifts and grants with less than 8% provided by government grants and the rest through fundraising events. With only one leader within the organization collecting a salary, the executive director is responsible for less than 2% of the charity’s expenses.

This organization is open about all its spending, including submitting expense reports and all performance metrics. It also provides easy access to information regarding the operations of the organization including:

Board member/Staff names
Audited financials
Board meeting minutes
Form 990
Whistleblower, conflict of interest, records detention and destruction and donor privacy policies
CEO salary
Method of determination for CEO salary

How Similar Charities Stack Up

There are a number of other charities in similar lines of work around the country which have also been evaluated. Out of the top five performing similar work, only the New England Foundation for the Arts rates higher than the New York Foundation for the Arts and, with a rating of 95.75, by approximately .40%. The others of the top five ranking are rated from 94.48 to 86.53 (the New York Foundation for the Arts ranks at 95.37).

How You Can Help

The New York Foundation for the Arts is able to help these people in a number of different ways and through a number of different methods because of contributions from the public at charity events and fundraisers and from donors in the form of private donations and grants.