🔒Cathy Malloy reflects on the struggle for new arts dollars

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When it comes time for end-of-year giving, arts groups find they can most often depend on financial gifts from faithful fans.

Thank goodness.

That's because arts-giving from several other sources have taken a hit over the past decade. The National Endowment for the Arts has never fully recovered its grant-giving levels of the early '90s. Annual dollars given out by the state's Office of the Arts, for instance, have dwindled to a trickle as Connecticut's budget has been battered.

More locally, money given out by the Greater Hartford Arts Council — the organization that largely oversees corporate and workplace giving to the region's 140 nonprofit art groups — also declined over the years, from $1.4 million in 2012 to $1.1 million in 2018.

“We're certainly not making the money we did in the '80s and '90s,” says Greater Hartford Arts Council CEO Cathy Malloy during a recent interview from her Pearl Street office in downtown Hartford.

Or even the first decade of the 2000s.

But Malloy still determinedly drumbeats about the arts and the role the council plays in the region, even in light of the reduced dollars it has to give out from its most recently completed budget of $2.45 million, down slightly from $2.63 million in 2012.

Malloy began in the arts post the year her husband, Dannel P. Malloy, became governor in 2011. Prior to that, she had a 10-year tenure as executive director for another not-for-profit, the Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education. While her husband moved out of his executive job Jan. 9, she will be continuing on in hers.

“Money is always a big issue. That's never gone away,” she said.

Malloy and her staff have to tread a careful line between acknowledging the generosity of the corporations that help fund the nonprofit while encouraging them to increase their support and spur other businesses to participate.

“One of the things we're challenged with now is [the nature of] corporate philanthropy,” she says. Malloy notes businesses are being pulled in many philanthropic directions to deal with social issues such as homelessness, hunger, education, crime — “front-burner issues,” she says. “But we want arts on the stove.” She also says the trend for corporations is to give more on a national scope.

“But we really feel very strongly that if you have a [corporate] headquarters here, or if you have a significant employee base here, you should be giving here, too,“ she says.

New revenue

In light of changing dynamics, Malloy says the council is looking for new revenue streams, “while not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

One modest revenue stream is a “fees-for-service” approach, where corporations pay the council to manage, package and execute special events, such as the “Summer in the City” program in Hartford, which will be entering its third go-round this year in partnership with United Technologies Corp. and the city of Hartford.

Also in 2019, the council plans to manage the arts portfolio of a major corporation, which will provide another new revenue stream. Malloy says that deal came about based on the arts council's expertise in following scores of nonprofits in the region for the past 48 years.

“We know these organizations inside and out, so if a company is coming to us and says, 'We have this much money to invest in the arts but we don't know the arts community as well as you do, where do you think we should invest?', we can help,” she said.

The new venture will allow the council — especially if other corporations ask for similar services — to have significant influence on arts funding beyond its own dollars.

Workplace funds

Malloy says the council's arts advocacy and promotional role is an important one, too, especially when it goes directly into the workplace during its annual campaign.

Workplace giving was instituted nearly 20 years ago to help offset the declining corporate contributions at the time. In the last six years, workplace giving remained stable, making up 24 percent of the council's budget while corporate giving declined from 40 percent to 33 percent of the budget. (The remainder of the budget comes from a mix of sources, including foundation support, government, fundraising events and individual donations.)

“When we go into the workplace it's not just to raise money from employees but to expose these individuals who work and live in the city to arts groups they would might not otherwise be familiar,” Malloy said. “Our job is also to expose the wealth of arts to those who live and work here.”

But no matter how much — or how little — is raised, Malloy says she realizes the importance of “unrestricted” grants to arts organizations. This money is usually directed at such basic operational expenses as paying the electricity, telephone, gas and insurance bills. It's one of the least sexiest categories for philanthropic giving — though one of the most important.

One of the positive signs that Malloy sees is “that Hartford is on the uptick.” She points to the presence of UConn, Stanley Black & Decker's downtown tech center, the re-opening of the Goodwin Hotel, the i-Quilt, new restaurants, increased housing “and, overall, more people on the streets.”

“I feel good about 2019 in a sense that the city is moving forward,” says Malloy. “We'll see what the new governor does in regard to culture, along with the new commissioner for the Department of Economic and Community Development.”

When asked what keeps her up at night she answered in two words: “Raising money. That's what we live and breathe to do here: Support the arts.”