Gauging the health of Michigan’s nonprofit arts and culture sector has been difficult because it includes everything from century-old arts museums and music societies to volunteer-led festivals celebrating small towns to cutting-edge arts and technology community projects. Using lists from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and the state arts council, the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Creative State Michigan estimates there are about 2,000 arts, cultural, and historical nonprofits in Michigan.
The Michigan Cultural Data Project (CDP) data collection process provides for analysis of all these organizations, no matter their size or if staffed or volunteer. It collects their annual financial and programmatic data in a detailed, eleven section online form and uses a two-part validation review to find data entry errors. It also allows for the users entering data to generate 77 different reports about their organizations and compare themselves to others.
This first Creative State Michigan is a snapshot that looks at about 10% of Michigan’s arts and culture nonprofits. It includes the 211 organizations that had review complete fiscal year 2009 information in the Michigan Cultural Data Project as of October 7, 2011. Three areas are covered: Revenue, Capital Campaigns and Working Capital. The next reports in the Creative State Michigan series will consider expanded datasets, as more organizations enter review complete data and data will be available for multiple years.
This first report on approximately 10% of arts and culture nonprofits in Michigan illustrates the variety of organizing models used to deliver arts and culture across Michigan. Additional details on jobs can be found in the Value of the Creative Economy section of this report.
