In 2019, arts organizations in BIPOC-majority neighborhoods of a major U.S. city received 16% less median grant funding than those in white-majority neighborhoods. By 2022, they were receiving 289% more. Over three years, funding patterns that historically and systemically overlooked these marginalized communities shifted remarkably.
This progress wasn’t accidental. It was the result of a deliberate, well-resourced funding initiative launched in the middle of national crises. And it raises a critical question for the philanthropic sector: Why did it take a crisis to prompt intentional investment, and how can it be sustained as political and economic landscapes present new challenges?
In 2020, as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had altered daily life for most, it also threatened the survival of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations nationwide. This crisis brought new perspective on how nonprofits were asked to spend their limited time and resources, and by summer of that year, this grew into a call for meaningful re-evaluation of responsive and equitable funding practices.
In the weeks that followed the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter social justice movement gained new prominence, spurring widespread calls for change that felt like an unstoppable force for societal progress. Over the next year, pressure on institutions to act on racial equity intensified.
The Ford Foundation responded with America’s Cultural Treasures grant program (ACT) — a two-pronged funding initiative, national then regional, designed to recognize the diversity of artistic expression and to provide critical funding to arts organizations that had made significant cultural contributions despite historically limited resources.
Ford’s regional initiative ultimately engaged more than 40 funders and philanthropies and distributed more than $276 million. Each of the nine participating regions were empowered to design their own approach, with local foundations driving decisions about scope, grantees, and structure.
