Day of Giving on May 11 to benefit the arts
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An Art Day of Giving on Wednesday aims to expand individual contributions made to strapped arts and culture organizations in Allegheny, Butler, Fayette, Indiana, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
Contributions must be made during the 24-hour period beginning at midnight at the website pittsburghgives.org. The minimum gift is $15 and may be made by Visa or MasterCard only. Those without Internet service may go to any Crazy Mocha coffee shop where laptops will be available Wednesday for persons wishing to give.
There are 147 participating organizations, ranging in size from the Carnegie Museums to the Baltzer Meyer Historical Society in Westmoreland County, which took a serious hit during the recent tornadoes.
The website gives examples of what various contribution amounts may fund, such as $65 for ceramics class supplies at The Union Project, $80 for a pair of pointe shoes for a Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre ballerina, or $1,500 for painting conservation at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
After the Pittsburgh Foundation has held two successful annual days of giving to benefit the Allegheny County nonprofit community, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and Heinz Endowments approached the foundation to sponsor a day of giving for a subsector of the nonprofits, arts and cultural groups.
Mitch Swain, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council CEO, said his organization has been looking at ways to increase individual giving for some time, and that has become more important as government and foundation monies available to arts groups decrease.
Donations in Allegheny County dropped 28 percent in 2009 compared with 2008 figures, he said, a much steeper decline than the national 6.3 percent average in 2008 and 0.4 percent in 2009. He also noted that over the past four years the number of donors has been relatively flat.
The matching pool of $475,000 committed by six funding groups will be pro-rated dependent upon how much is collected to guarantee that each organization with contributors shares in the original pool. The exact match percentage will be released Thursday. Organizations may receive a $1 to $1 match, or it could be 50 cents on the dollar. The procedure was designed to eliminate the competition of previous events as donors filed early to ensure their organizations would gain the most.
Credit card processors will take a 2.9 percent fee per transaction. The organizations will receive donations, minus the credit card fee, with their portion of the match pool within two weeks.
Last year's October Day of Giving raised $3.2 million, 25 percent of which went to arts organizations. Mr. Swain is hoping to surpass that with a $1 million campaign this year, he said.
First Published May 9, 2011 12:00 am
