On Monday, October 16, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s Board of Trustees will
hold a meeting to discuss and take action on its allocation policy, the annual allocation of CAC’s revenue into its grant programs for 2018-19, and to provide education to its trustees about the existing General Operating Support formula.
Background: CAC’s is projected to bring in approximately 25% less tax revenue over the next decade. That means CAC will have less revenue to allocate to its grant programs. This meeting is about how we can best allocate our funding for 2018-19 to provide the most support and predictability to our partners over time.
What CAC’s Board Will Discuss & Do: The Board will continue its discussion about grant program allocation, which started at CAC’s September board meeting. The Board will discuss and take action on an allocation recommendation of $10.2 million into the General Operating Support program for 2018-19, which would enable CAC to maintain a similar allocation in 2020-2021.
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What’s staying the same? CAC’s commitment to General Operating support is unwavering. General Operating Support will continue to receive the majority of funding per CAC’s allocation policy. CAC is not proposing an increase in Project Support or other CAC programs.
The GOS funding formula is not changing. Discussion of the formula is on the agenda because we will take time to educate new board members on how the formula works.
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Ongoing conversations with our partners have informed CAC’s allocation recommendations. We’ve heard clearly that our General Operating Support grant recipients want stability and predictability in CAC funding. The recommendation before the Board aims to align CAC’s expenses with its shrinking revenues while also making future grants more predictable for our partners.
The board will also take action to update its
allocation policy to reflect CAC’s commitment to equity. The basic components of our allocation policy remain unchanged: General Operating Support will continue to receive the majority of funding (forecasted to be approximately $95 million dollars over the next 10 years), followed by Project Support and other grants and programs.
A decreasing revenue picture doesn’t feel good to anyone. We know that organizations receiving grants from CAC need every dollar that we can provide. However, we have to “right size” our expenses to our revenues, so that we can continue to make meaningful grants for the next 10 years. With that in mind, CAC is making the best recommendation for a funding allocation that we can, given what we project our future revenues to be and informed by conversations with dozens of organizations and their leaders. We’re working in the best interest of all of our cultural partners.
If You Plan To Attend: The public is invited to observe CAC’s Board work session and learn about the actions the Board will be taking. Doors open at 7:30am. You can review the
meeting agenda and detailed handouts, which explain CAC’s projected financial position and includes additional information about the meeting. If you have any questions, please contact us at
info@cacgrants.org or 216-515-8303.