Bank's foundation pledges bail out of arts organizations

    Individual and corporate donations have fallen off over the past few months, both in Philadelphia and around the country. Today, a corporate foundation has announced support for groups pushing artistic boundaries in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

    Individual and corporate donations have fallen off over the past few months, both in Philadelphia and around the country. Today, a corporate foundation has announced support for groups pushing artistic boundaries in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

    (Transcript has been edited to reflect changes from the original audio piece.)

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    PNC Foundation will provide $5 million in grants over five years to emerging arts organizations with innovative programs. Kat Rosqueta, Director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at Penn, says corporate donations have been down. But she says for foundations created by banks, like this one, the trend doesn’t necessarily apply.

    Rosqueta: “It’s not like the money could be used for anything else. It is meant to be used for grant making. You couldn’t for example take the money away to hire more people in the bank or prevent layoffs. It was set aside legally and structurally for philanthropic giving.”

    The only thing that would prevent the bank foundation from fulfilling its grant commitments, Rosqueta says, might be if the stock funding the donations, Blackrock, were to fall truly dramatically.

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