Hill Strategies Research on Spending on Culture

In the latest issue of Hill Strategies' Arts Research Monitor: Detailed information about spending on culture, including two Canadian reports on local governments’ cultural spending, a Canadian study of the donating preferences of different age groups, as well as an American report on arts funding. 

Click the titles below to read the full reports.  

Municipal spending on culture in Quebec in 2012
(Les dépenses culturelles des municipalités en 2012)

This report from Quebec’s cultural observatory highlights various statistics related to cultural spending by Quebec municipalities in 2012. Quebec municipalities’ operating expenditures on culture totalled $843 million, representing 4.8% of municipal operating expenditures. Montreal and Quebec City, the only cities with populations over 500,000 in Quebec, spent $373 million on culture in 2012, or 44% of the cultural expenditures of all Quebec municipalities.

Saskatoon’s Investment in Culture, 2009 to 2012
With Comparisons to Twelve Other Canadian Cities

While focussed on cultural investments by the City of Saskatoon, this research document also provided information regarding the expenditures of other municipal governments that have participated in a similar benchmarking process over the past few years. Regarding average yearly spending on culture between 2009 and 2012, Edmonton had the highest per capita investment ($34.39), followed by Saskatoon ($32.36), Richmond ($23.52), Hamilton ($23.51), Oakville ($19.28), Halifax ($17.19) and Windsor ($12.49). The most recent year’s data (2012) show that Saskatoon had the highest overall investment in culture ($47.05), followed by Edmonton ($38.68), Richmond ($31.85), Hamilton ($24.10), Halifax ($17.25), Oakville ($16.69), and Windsor ($15.30).

The Next Generation of Canadian Giving 2013
A Study on the Multichannel Preferences and Charitable Habits of Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers and Civics

Based on an online survey of 809 Canadians outside of Quebec who made a financial donation to a not-for-profit organization over the year before the survey (May 2013), this report examines generational differences in charitable giving. Unfortunately, the report does not provide the margins of error of the overall statistics or the generational breakdowns. As such, its statistical validity is difficult to assess (although the sample size would be representative at the national level, if it were a random survey). In addition, the report does not indicate why Quebec respondents were excluded in 2013 after being included in a similar 2010 survey. The report estimates that the share of current donations among the generations to all types of not-for-profit organizations is: Civics (25%), Boomers (32%), Generation X (27%), and Generation Y (15%).

Arts Funding Snapshot
GIA’s Annual Research on Support for Arts and Culture

These brief articles highlight government support for the arts in 2013 and foundation support for the arts and culture in 2011 in the United States. The article on public funding indicates that total government funding for the arts in the U.S. was estimated at $1.14 billion in 2013. Local governments provided the most support for the arts (over $700 million, although exact figures by level of government were not provided in the article). State legislatures appropriated nearly $300 million for the arts, and the federal appropriation for the National Endowment for the Arts was under $140 million in 2013. Total government funding for the arts decreased by 30% after inflation between 1992 and 2013. Based on a sample of 1,122 larger foundations in the U.S., the article on foundation funding estimated arts and culture funding to be 10% of foundation funding for all fields of giving.