Shift in Corporate Focus Diminishes Donations to Valley Arts

If not for Valley-based businesses, there wouldn’t be much music, art or theater for residents to enjoy, arts organizations say.

And even that precarious funding is in jeopardy because of corporate mergers, the changing way companies spend their discretionary dollars and the inability of small arts organizations to devote the time and resources necessary to woo corporate donations.

“The corporate community has been very generous to the arts, especially programs involving youth and children,” said Clyde Porter, interim director of the Valley Cultural Center, perhaps the largest organizer of musical and theater arts in the Valley.

“There’s been a change in focus in the business community,” he continued. “I think [businesses] are giving to programs involving children and health issues [rather than cultural arts]. I think we’ve reached a plateau in terms of company commitments.”

The cultural center, which produces the popular “Concerts in the Park” series at Warner Park in Woodland Hills, has experienced a 70% drop this year in co-sponsors in the $1,000 to $3,000 donation strata, “which was a big hit,” Porter said.

The center receives interest of 6% to 9% a year on a $350,000 endowment paid for mostly by local businesses. It will soon begin drawing interest of 6% to 8% on a $200,000 endowment from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Corporate donations, which come to about $100,000 a year, make up about 90% of the center’s funding, Porter said.

Besides the drop in the $1,000 to $3,000 donors, the center experienced a 50% drop in donations in the $200 to $1,000 range. That will force the cultural center to trim its $280,000 annual budget to about $200,000, Porter said.

Losing a donor means “a big struggle to replace that support,” he said.

National grants are practically nonexistent today, Porter said. “If it weren’t for the corporate community, we’d be in serious trouble.”

But corporate mergers and the relocation of businesses to cities outside the Valley have taken a toll. Mergers, such as CareAmerica and Blue Shield or Prudential and Aetna, “have caused a real problem because where you once had two sponsors, you now have one,” said Marilyn Hankins, who was the first executive director of the Valley Cultural Center.

“For years, large corporations were the backbone of raising money, but there are fewer corporations to go to today,” said Cal Lockett, director of constituent relations at WellPoint Health Networks, which sponsored Valley Cultural Center activities until 1997, when it moved from Warner Center to Thousand Oaks.

Health Net, whose former CEO Roger Greaves was one of the Valley Cultural Center’s founders, has been supporting the Concerts in the Park since 1990 not only monetarily, but also by providing giveaways, such as sunscreen, bottled water and sun visors.

But the company passed on the concert support this year because of budget constraints, focusing instead on contributions to health programs, especially women’s health, said Tom Smith, director of meetings and community events for Health Net.

Businesses say supporting the arts is a good way to build a presence in the community.

“We support things that build up the community,” said Bernard Boudreaux, community relations manager for Mervyn’s California. “A healthy community builds up the business.”

In 1988, Mervyn’s donated $3,000 to help underwrite a summer concert by the San Fernando Valley Symphony. And in the last decade, the Hayward, Calif.-based chain has donated more than $40,000 to the Valley Cultural Center to sponsor Monday Morning Concerts for Kids, which brings music to local schoolchildren.

The Warner Center Marriott this summer became one of five top “season sponsors” of the Concerts in the Park. The hotel increased the level of its in-kind donations to the Cultural Center, offering free meeting space with food and beverage service and room accommodations for some performers.

Valley businesses were critical to getting programming underway at the 480-seat Madrid Theater in Canoga Park, said Ron Clary, chairman of the Friends of the Madrid Theater and past president of the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce. The theater opened in December with a yearly programming budget of $80,000, mostly through contributions from companies such as Time Warner, Voit Cos., Litton and Paramount.

Free advertising from KPFK and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal helped support the summer Sunset Concert series at the Skirball Cultural Center, said Joanna Fish, media relations coordinator at the museum, which is developing a plan to gain corporate support.

“They helped generate publicity and let us reach out to the diversity of the city,” Fish said. “As a nonprofit, we’re grateful for business partnerships. We can’t do our job without them.”

In the East Valley, the Walt Disney Co. donates to the Burbank Civic Light Opera, the Burbank Fine Arts Federation and the Glendale Symphony. It encourages employees to become community “VoluntEARS,” which sponsor art classes through Free Arts for Abused Children and produce yearly plays that raise money for a young artists program.

Still, support for cultural programs is a constant struggle.

The 32-year-old San Fernando Valley Arts Council recently lost the use of a facility in Encino Park because of lack of funds.

In the past, the volunteer group has received donations from Sony, American Express, Time Warner and Voit to offer a variety of activities, including an animation program for teens and a youth orchestra at Canoga Park Elementary School, said Roslyn Wolin, arts council president.

The center also operated photography classes and low-fee darkrooms. Local businesses would help by donating equipment or services, Wolin said.

But now, “We get very little help from businesses,” she said. “People just don’t take an interest in the arts today.”

Many arts programs, including the San Fernando Valley Arts Council, once funded by the city now must rely on private donations because of budget cuts, although some matching city funds are still available, said Earl Sherburn, community arts director for the Department of Cultural Affairs.

The public-private partnership gives arts organizations free use of city-owned buildings (with all utilities paid except telephones), but they have to rely on grants and corporate donations to run their programs. The city also pays for some staffing, and small fees paid by the public also contribute to staff salaries.

When the McGroarty Art Center in Tujunga began its public-private partnership in the early 1990s, it received $57,000 from various private sources, including the Ahmanson Foundation, said Laurelle Geils, McGroarty Center director.

Today, the center relies on a $50,000 grant from the Annenberg Foundation and $15,000 from the city, but it has little business support.

“I don’t think [businesses] are uninterested,” she said. “We just haven’t had the time or staff to go out and approach them. It gets tougher every year to keep these programs going.”