PHOENIX, AZ (February 1, 2011) — Arts and cultural organizations in Arizona will now have access to new technology to help them strengthen their management capacity and demonstrate their value and impact in communities. The Cultural Data Project (CDP), a powerful, web-based data collection tool for arts organizations and the cultural field, is launching this month with the help of a consortium of public and private funders including 10 Arizona foundations and other funders.
“Arizona arts and culture organizations now have this dynamic online tool to help them manage the complex budgets and financial projections needed to thrive in these challenging economic times and beyond,” said Robert Booker, executive director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts. “The entire arts and culture industry will benefit statewide—from small arts organizations to the largest cultural institutions.”
The Cultural Data Project has been helping groups in many states track their financial data and trends, and is now emerging as a national model for collecting and disseminating reliable, standardized data for this important sector. Operated by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the CDP now reaches more than 9,800 nonprofits in Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Ohio. With support from partners including the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Kresge Foundation, the CDP is launching a national expansion, with the goal of 22 participating states by 2014.
The Cultural Data Project gives arts and culture organizations the technology to ease the challenges they often face with collecting and organizing information for funding partnerships.
Participating groups have access to free, on-demand assistance from a team of accountants specializing in nonprofit finance, who can help them provide accurate data and understand their financial picture more thoroughly. The CDP then serves as a repository so that groups can track their individual data and trends over time, generate various reports and compare how they operate relative to their peers. For example, a theater organization could both analyze how effective its marketing dollars are in generating ticket revenues and increasing audiences, and compare its annual attendance to groups of similar organizations in its community, or communities in other CDP states.
The project fills a much-needed niche by making reliable, standardized data broadly available to researchers at no cost, to help them analyze and interpret the cultural sector.
The Cultural Data Project is brought to Arizona by a taskforce of public and private funders and advocacy agencies, including Arizona Commission on the Arts, Arizona Community Foundation, City of Mesa Arts and Culture Department, City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Flinn Foundation, Tucson Pima Arts Council, UBS Financial Services and Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.
The Cultural Data Project is governed by a consortium of organizations in Pennsylvania, including the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, The Heinz Endowments, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the William Penn Foundation.
For more information on the Cultural Data Project, including a full listing of partners for each state, visit www.culturaldata.org.
The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life. We partner with a diverse range of donors, public and private organizations and concerned citizens who share our commitment to fact-based solutions and goal-driven investments to improve society.
We’re back with another Community Conversation — and this time, we’re headed to Lake Havasu City and Kingman!
Join us on June 16 at 4:30 PM at Beale Street Theater in Kingman and on June 17 at 4 PM at Mohave Community College - Lake Havasu City Campus for a 90-minute interactive session all about YOU and the arts in your community.
RSVP by scanning the QR code, clicking the link in our b
We’re staying closer to our Phoenix home for the next Community Conversations, visiting the west and east valley!
Then catch us in Mesa at the Mesa Main Library on May 22!