Funder Brief: Urgent Needs and Strategic Opportunities in the Equity and Arts Ecosystem

Context:

Arts and equity-centered organizations—particularly those led by BIPOC communities—are

navigating unprecedented challenges. A confluence of political repression, financial instability,

and ideological backlash has created conditions that demand both rapid response and

long-term vision. This moment calls for bold philanthropic leadership. The following notes and

recommendations reflect two recent dialogue sessions between arts leaders and philanthropic

program officers facilitated by Enrich Chicago.

1. Urgent Financial Challenges

Crisis Conditions: Organizations are experiencing severe financial strain due to disrupted

funding streams (e.g., loss of NEA support). Some are confronting liquidity crises, program

closures, and potential staff layoffs.

Philanthropic Innovation Needed: There is a critical need for alternative funding

mechanisms.

● Rapid response funds

● Low-interest credit lines

● Strategic deployment of Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)

● Support for income diversification strategies

2. Rising Risk and Uncertainty

Escalating Scrutiny: Organizations advancing DEI work are being targeted by hostile actors

and government actions, raising legal and reputational risks for staff, donors, and partners.

Immediate DEI-Related Threats: Executive Orders and legal challenges are already impacting

operations. Many organizations cannot assess or mitigate this risk.

Call for Risk Tools: The sector needs accessible, DEI-specific risk assessment tools,

particularly for small and under-resourced groups.

3. Leadership & Governance Pressures

Board Readiness: Boards require support to manage political and legal risk and to guide

organizations through both crisis and strategic phases.

Complex Leadership Decisions: Leaders are balancing funding constraints, organizational

values, stakeholder trust, and internal tensions.

Limited Capacity: Especially in smaller organizations, there is inadequate infrastructure to

respond to overlapping pressures effectively.

4. Identity, Values & Integrity

Integrity at Stake: For many, especially BIPOC-led organizations, equity work is core to the

mission. Pressure to retreat from DEI work threatens organizational identity, morale, and

credibility.

Emotional Toll: The dilution or erasure of DEI language is demoralizing to staff and undermines

internal culture.

Community Trust: External stakeholders recognize when organizations shift away from their

stated values, which impacts trust and long-term engagement.

5. Strategic & Collective Response

Messaging & Mobilization Gaps: Organizations understand the stakes but need support in

crafting clear, values-based communications.

Sector-Wide Strategy Needed: There is growing momentum for collective action, including

proposals to launch a legal defense and advocacy fund akin to the NAACP Legal Defense

Fund, but focused on arts and culture.

Beyond Fear-Based Compliance: Legal guidance must be coupled with bold, values-aligned

strategies that protect mission-critical work.

Sustaining Momentum: Strategic investments in fundraising, organizing, and public advocacy

are urgently needed.

6. Structural Reimagining & Opportunities

Philanthropy Under Review: The traditional funder-grantee power dynamic is being

challenged. Now is the time to co-create new approaches rooted in trust, shared risk, and

long-term partnership.

Governance Innovation: Integrating equity into planning structures (e.g., curatorial

committees, advisory boards) enhances resilience and accountability.

Bold Experimentation Encouraged: This is a defining moment to pilot and scale radical

approaches to funding, collaboration, and organizational structure.

7. Community, Care & Solidarity

People First: Strategies must center the well-being of staff, leaders, artists, and the

communities they serve.

Sector Mobilization: There are calls for regular convenings, solidarity frameworks, and a

renewed vision for collective action.

Creativity as Resistance: The arts remain a vital tool for resistance, healing, and imagination.

Philanthropy must invest in creative responses that meet this moment.

Conclusion:

This is not simply a moment of risk—it is also a moment of possibility. Strategic, values-aligned

Philanthropy can play a transformative role by resourcing infrastructure, care, and courage

across the sector. In the Chicagoland area, some foundations have recently announced the

planned sunset of arts funding within their portfolios. Several others have advanced funding

strategies that are contrary to widely supported equitable practices advocated for by

stakeholders across the sector over the last decade. Others still have a significant amount of

assets that have not been deployed to support existing arts organizations that are leading some

of the most transformative, justice- and community-centered work across the city. We could not

have predicted this moment however, we should call upon our most audacious thinking to

mitigate both the chronic and the acute challenges within the arts sector. We invite funders to

join us in meeting this moment with solidarity, imagination, and shared responsibility.