Transcript of the podcast:
BARBARA WHEELER-BRIDE: Welcome to Giving with Impact, an original podcast series from Stanford Social Innovation Review, developed with the support of DAFgiving360. I’m your host, Barbara Wheeler-Bride, an editor at SSIR. In this series, we bring together voices from across the philanthropic ecosystem to have a conversation about what’s at the heart of achieving more effective philanthropy.
This season, we’re going to talk with non-profit leaders and philanthropists on the front lines of making a difference in their communities. You’ll also hear from experts who can provide guidance for creating charitable plans and investing for impact. Each episode will help donors think differently about giving, and introduce new frameworks for considering their own charitable impact.
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about funding and supporting the arts, and art education. In recent years, many school districts across the United States have made the difficult decision to cut arts programs, including drama, music, and visual arts. Today, we’ll talk about the value of funding arts education in our public schools, as well as in communities outside the formal education system where the value of experiences with art are helping develop life skills, social and emotional skills, civic engagement, and more.
Our guests today are David Garza, President and CEO of Henry Street Settlement in New York City, a non-profit whose mission is to open doors of opportunities for Lower East Side residents and other New Yorkers through social services, arts and healthcare programs; Kevin Greaney, co-founder of PhilARThropy, a non-profit working to help fund the next generation of art teachers and programs; and Eric Joranson, Senior Manager at DAFgiving360.
Let’s begin by getting to know our guests and their organizations a bit better. David, can you tell us more about the mission of Henry Street Settlement, and its rich history of supporting arts and local culture in the community?
DAVID GARZA: Absolutely. I’m really grateful to be here, and anytime I have the opportunity to share about the work of Henry Street Settlement, I’m really grateful to do so. So Henry Street Settlement is… we’re now on our 132nd year. We’re essentially a poverty-fighting organization. We were founded at the turn of the century, and over that time we’ve evolved to be a really multifaceted, comprehensive human service organization, because from our founding days, our approach has always been neighbor helping neighbor, working to serve the whole person, the whole family, the whole block, the whole neighborhood. And as historic as we are, one of the most beneficial things about our history, we have this organizational DNA that’s given us such an extraordinary blueprint. We were founded by a 26-year-old nurse who was on the Lower East side in 1893, which was at that time, arguably, one of the most densely populated neighborhoods on the planet. People needed services desperately. Healthcare was an extraordinary need because disease was rampant. The conditions of the neighborhood were deplorable by all accounts. People needed access to support and services. And as a 26-year-old nurse, she had a moment that she considers her baptism of fire, where she was brought to a mother who was laying in a pool of her own blood, left by the doctor because she couldn’t pay the bill. And this mom was hemorrhaging during childbirth. And our founder, Lillian Wald, she knew that the conditions that were being experienced in this neighborhood, and serving them, and addressing them was her calling. And where we’re extraordinarily fortunate 132 years later is her approach was timelessly progressive, was comprehensive and was based on the fact that you needed to serve the whole person.
So our founding services were healthcare, education, employment, housing, food insecurity, and the arts. And our presence in the arts is really built on those fundamental pieces of our organizational DNA. Our founder believed that people needed the arts. It was as essential as food, shelter, and access to services for creative expression, to stay in touch with their own cultures, to build community. And we are really happy to kind of work in that legacy and that light, and really, really grateful to be partnered with individuals like Kevin and others who acknowledge that importance, because we’re rare in that the arts is embedded in the human service organization, as such, and we’re certainly fortunate that others see how important it is to support our efforts there.
BARBARA: Thanks, David. I really love what you had to say about serving the whole person, And I imagine, too, that especially going back to your founding, just the importance of culture to the immigrant communities that Henry Street Settlement worked with and just maintaining their culture and their own identity, and so being a real force for supporting that and seeing that as really vital and important to your mission,
DAVID: That was the core stepping stone. In fact, our founder used to host pageants or parades where all of the different immigrant communities would kind of bring their own act to the parade, if you will. And without exception, they were informed by their culture, like dances that evoke their heritage, or plays that described origin stories, or cultural components that were important to them as individuals and families, but as a community that had come from another place, and a way to hang on to that for the unity in that, for the bonding in that, for the preservation of that, but also for the confidence and the empowerment, being in a community like the Lower East Side, where hanging on to those aspects of our identity were critically important. And it’s no more fitting than it is today, where our culture, our identity, our history is important. And so that was one of the many reasons why the arts was embraced. And then the power of the arts to the individual, the power of the arts to opportunity, the power of the arts to build community kind of was all right there with it as well.
BARBARA: Thanks, David. Kevin, your organization, PhilARThropy, has taken an innovative approach to sustaining arts education in schools, and arts programs like David’s talking about. Would you tell us a bit about PhilARThropy, and what it does, and what motivated you to start the organization?
KEVIN GREANEY: Certainly. Thank you, Barbara. I’m here to introduce you to a new innovative arts education initiative. It’s called PhilARThropy, merging philanthropy and art, and art education. And basically what we do is we source art from collectors, and we ask collectors if they could donate a piece or two or three from their collection to our foundation. And in return, as a 501(c)(3), we provide a tax-deductible incentive to them, along with the naming opportunity. And I thought, could we take the college professor endowment model and bring it down to an elementary school art and music teacher, preferably in a low income, much needed area of this country, and provide that opportunity. And the naming opportunity, it could be anonymous, it could be in their name, it could be in the name of someone’s teacher that taught them art when they were in elementary school. It’s up to the collector.
But then we take that donated art, and we make a private sale to another collector or someone, and after we pay the appropriate associated fees to the auction houses and everything, we invest those proceeds into our endowment account. And that account is managed by some of the most esteemed investors of our generation at no cost. And the proceeds of that investment fund, they fund an elementary art or music teacher in perpetuity, and that’s called sustainable philanthropy and sustainable investments. And then the collector, again, can name that gift or name it anonymously. It’s up to them. But the funds pay for the teacher’s salary, the benefits, that’s the core project. But then also we fund supplies. We fund field trips. We fund master level degrees. We fund a trip overseas to study and visit museums.
If you just look at the cities, art education is being cut, art music across the board just because of the impact on budgets and so forth. So this is an area where we put in these sustainable models where we just ask people to donate and that will fund art education and art teachers. And the outcomes of that, what art provides, not only does it provide creative and innovative parts of the brain, you have empathy, you have social-emotional learning, you have several different positive aspects of society that all come out of the art education.
And we’re here to just expand that and partnering with people like David at Henry Street Settlement House where they have the infrastructure, we’re here to provide the funding for that and to have that sustainable forever. And they have the expertise in teaching the arts, the music, the sculpture, the theater, all of that. That’s the partnership that’s so valuable right here. And then hopefully, to expand through other organizations that are like David’s throughout the country, to go from New York City, to Miami, to Chicago, to LA, and throughout the country, that’s our goal.
BARBARA: Thanks, Kevin. Go ahead, David. You were going to say something?
DAVID: As Kevin speaks, I can’t help but get enthusiastic because particularly when we talk about sustainability of the arts, it’s an area that’s defined by such volatility, right? Like arts funding, it’s the last on, it’s the first off whenever there’s any kind of like economic upheaval or volatility whatsoever, or when there’s something competing for priorities within the philanthropic world or within communities. When we talk about access to the arts and what a framework like PhilARThropy can help us do by sustaining teachers in perpetuity, so our mission at Henry Street is to open doors of opportunity. And to open the door to the arts, one of the most meaningful ways we do that is in a program that we call All Access Arts. And what it does is it supports any young person who lives in New York City public housing to come take classes at our art center for free. That would not be possible without a teacher that is paid for by outside support because the funding, as I described before, is so volatile.
And the types of impact that we see coming directly out of that program… we have a young woman named Alina. She came to our art center in September. Her mother had passed away in June. It completely provided an environment for her to kind of heal and recover from that access point. We serve many new arrivals to New York City and many migrant families. We have a mom who simply could not help her child enroll in programming because she couldn’t navigate the language skills necessary to do so. So she was taking English at Henry Street, but also through this program was able to enroll her child in arts classes.
In each one of these cases, once the access is achieved because of programs like this, then they can make progress in a discipline. So like Alina is a dancer and Joseph is a singer and an actor, and by having these programs sustained in perpetuity, it accomplished the access, but then it also provides an environment where students can grow in the arts and begin to gain skills, and in some cases find a career.
So I just really wanted to underline how critically important the access is, and how a program like this by sustaining it in perpetuity really creates a world of possibilities for the students that access the support.
BARBARA: Given what you were saying, David and Kevin, about the importance of sustainability, and also, I think, looking around in the world today, and seeing questions around funding, and having the resources that organizations need to keep vital programming going, Kevin, I wonder if you could just say a little bit about the importance that you see in sustainable funding versus the one-time gift?
KEVIN: Well, I’ve been in and around charity and non-profits for my whole career, and instead of just going to a funder and asking them to write a check to fund teachers and doing that every September, I thought there’s got to be a better way. So a lot of these investors and board members all collect art. And if you collect art, you have a lot of art in storage also, because you just don’t have enough walls in your homes to put up all your art. So I thought if I went and said, ‘Can you donate some of your art out of your storage and get the tax write off, we in turn, sell that and that art would fund a teacher for life.’ I mean, that’s sustainable philanthropy. You’re preserving a teacher’s job for life, that endowment role. And it could be art, it could be, you know, cuckoo clocks, it could be several things that you collect, whatever, but you have that. And we put that back into the marketplace and that will fund an art teacher, a music teacher, a ballet teacher, a sculpting teacher for life.
BARBARA: Thanks, Kevin.
DAVID: That sustainability translates directly to trust in our community and agility for us as a non-profit, and it’s an effective and efficient way to maintain these programs that are essential in a community. So much energy, so much administrative effort, so much money is normally required to go kind of hat-in-hand every single year to fund program components. This kind of sustainability, obviates all of that, and it allows us to put our energy into being present for the community. It really creates the possibility of us to have the doors open for everybody, especially in a climate like this where the arts are that much more important to speak about issues and values, and all of the forces that are swirling in our political climate and our social climate globally and locally.
BARBARA: David, I really appreciated everything you had to say about sustainability. I think that angle, or that thinking about it from a fundraising perspective, I think you said this too, Kevin, every year go back and ask a donor for another contribution, but like thinking about ways to give that are sustainable, and that really can have a long-term and longer-term impact. So Eric…
KEVIN: And Barbara… Oh, I’m sorry, just to jump in real quick on that, because I’m dealing with this whole transfer of wealth from the generation to generation, and there’s some great young 30-year-olds that I’m working with that are third generation, and they love the sustainability, because they love new innovative ways for philanthropy, they love sustainability, they love this project. As opposed to their grandparents who would just write checks every year to the Met and to MoMA and places like that, this is a way to have new innovative ways to help.
BARBARA: That’s a great thought about the great wealth transfer that we’re seeing, and also different ways of supporting organizations. Thanks, Kevin.
Eric, I’d like to loop you into this conversation to ask for some advice for donors or advisors about how donating non-cash assets can be a more efficient way to maximize your impact.
ERIC JORANSON: Thank you. Yeah, to David and Kevin’s points, right, there’s so much need out there, and I think we’re all in this together. We want to see items of value, whether it be artwork, it could be a Picasso in storage. But maybe artwork isn’t your thing, right? For some people, they own other types of non-cash assets, like real estate. Maybe they were an early investor in a tech company that’s now getting acquired. Maybe they were an original Bitcoin purchaser back in the early years, like even 2015, a decade ago. You think about the appreciation that’s built up in some of these long-term investment assets.
And the headline here is truly for people, if you are charitably inclined, and you own these kinds of long-term investment assets where there’s a lot of depreciation, there’s a huge charitable opportunity for you to give more wisely to charity. Take a cabin in Colorado, right? Say, the kids have moved. Calendars are hard to coordinate. It’s kind of gathering dust. Maybe it’s time to sell. A lot of people we talk with, they’ll say, ‘Well, if I sell this myself, I think I’m going to incur a big capital gain tax.’ And they say, ‘What would it look like if I tried to donate the actual cabin to a charity?’ Maybe it’s PhilARThropy, Henry Street Settlement, or if they’re giving to multiple charities, say, they have five to seven charities they usually give to, sometimes they might give it to a donor-advised fund, have the donor-advised fund help them sell it in a uniform and efficient manner, and then, lo and behold, after it’s all done, there’s cash in the account, and they can recommend grants to any charities they want to over a timeline that fits with their kind of giving strategy.
The thing that we see a lot is… and this is a success story, we have a lot of these success stories… I worked with a gentleman who gave private stock a few years ago, and it was a big amount. We sold it. Cash came into the account. His goal from the start was to set up recurring grants, think monthly bill pay, monthly grant checks going out to, I think it was seven different charities. He wanted to spend down the account within five to 10 years, and then anything left over when he dies and his wife died, they want the remainder to go to those seven charities too.
So it’s an exciting transaction to be a part of when you help donors think more creatively with their assets. What I find just from a trend perspective is donors have these inflection points in their life, right? They have life changes, they have different priorities, maybe they’re going to retire. They’re inventorying their assets, they’re thinking creatively, how can I put these assets towards things I want to use my money for in life, whether it be giving or other items. They want to be strategic with their philanthropy. It’s an honor and it’s an obligation to help them think through that in a uniform way to help them get the most bang for their buck with charitable giving.
BARBARA: Eric, what should non-profits be thinking about with regards to these types of gifts?
ERIC: Great question. I’m an attorney by training. I don’t practice anymore. Part of my professional life was in the non-profit sector. I was a gift officer. I was in the gift planning area. I think a lot of times for non-profits, you have to remind yourself to really sit down, and you’re talking about your mission and asking for support from charitable donors, but at the same time, you have to really listen for cues and clues from their situation, like what assets do they own? Where are they at in life? When is the right time to make a gift? Are they maybe going to be anticipating downsizing at some point in the future? Do they have liquidity event on the horizon? Are there any other life changes that you should know about as far as asset divestment that would line up with maybe the charitable roadmap you want to offer them with your organization? That’s the first thing, so just being a really good listener into where their wealth lies and how they want to use it.
The other thing that jumps to mind for me is assuming they say, ‘Yes, that’s great. What’s the next step if I wanted to donate that cabin in Vail, Colorado?’ Be prepared to understand what comes next, right? Does your organization have a comfort level already for taking real estate gifts? Do you have a gift acceptance policy? Do you have the bandwidth? Do you have the right kind of tax and trust and estate advisors in your circle to help them do it well? Or if you don’t, what kind of national organizations could you partner with to give them kind of a smooth experience donating these rather complex assets? It could be a national donor-advised fund like DAFgiving360, or it could be a number of other organizations.
BARBARA: Thanks, Eric. That’s really helpful information for donors, advisors, and non-profit organizations.
David, could you tell us about the impact you see the arts having on social change or social issues in the communities that Henry Street Settlement works with?
DAVID: Absolutely. In one part of the neighborhood, you have an area median income of $130,000 a year. On the other side of the neighborhood, you have an area median income anywhere from $15,000 a year to $20,000 a year. Deep, deep inequity captured in one neighborhood. Our neighborhood in the Lower East Side experiences with acute force housing instability, limited access to food, limited access to quality healthcare, the blunt force of gentrification. The arts gives a community an opportunity to confront these issues, to explore these issues, to bring the community in together to look at how these issues impact individuals, impact families, impact neighborhoods. And it’s unique for neighborhoods to have that capacity, not only through the work that’s presented, but through the audiences that come to the arts. The Lower East side, as almost it’s always been, is a microcosm of the global community. The same basic human services that describe our organization and our founding, whether it’s healthcare, education, employment, or the arts, these are global human issues. They’re timelessly relevant because as human beings, we all experience them. I’ll give a short example.
We have an arts program called Perfect City, and it provides young people the opportunity through visual art, through acting, and through other means, the opportunity to look at what kind of neighborhood they would want to create, what kind of perfect city they would want to create. I stay as close as possible to our programing, and I sat through a table read, and through this table read, there was a component that the young people are calling the Cat Calling Project. And the young actors who were in the program describing verbatim the cat calls that they experienced walking through New York. And these were, you know, in most cases young women, who were empowered by being at that table to call out what their experience looked like.
But here’s where, to get to your question, how the arts could unlock the capacity to speak to larger societal issues. One of these young women who was an actor in this project called out that cat calling to women is like gentrification is to a community. I was blown away by the observation. She said, economic development will give you kind of the promise of like, ‘Hey, baby, I’ll give you a Target. I’ll give you a Starbucks. I’ll give you a Whole Foods.’ With the promise of something attractive, but really intending to do something else. That is the power of how the arts can unlock that kind of connection with community in someone young or really at any age.
And so the artists that come to the Arts Center and the students that Access the Arts through Henry Street really get to explore that in a way that’s supported, in a way that’s informed by the community, and a way that really is uniquely without parallel because of our proximity to all these issues in the neighborhood.
BARBARA: Thanks, David. Those are great examples of charitable impact, social impact, and really how Henry Street, supported by organizations like PhilARThropy and other donors, are really able to do life-changing work right in the communities. And that’s just so important and necessary right now.
Unfortunately, we’re running out of time. David, Kevin, and Eric, thank you for making time to talk about supporting arts education. It was interesting to hear how donors can creatively fund and support the arts, and also to hear more about the impact that their charitable giving has in communities.
Thanks for listening, everyone. Please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite listening app, as it helps others discover the show. We hope you’ll listen to other episodes in this series, as well as other podcasts from SSIR. This podcast series is made possible with the support of DAFgiving360, who played an important role in the selection of topics and speakers. We’ll talk with you again soon.
DAFgiving360™ is the name used for the combined programs and services of Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Inc., an independent nonprofit organization which has entered into service agreements with certain subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation. DAFgiving360 is a tax-exempt public charity as described in Sections 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1), and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code.
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