Working for the Public Good Through Cross-Sector Partnerships in the Arts

Abstract

Once seen as a marginal component of corporate philanthropy, cross-sectoral partnerships have aroused considerable interest in recent years in business publications, non-profit management literature, as well as academic papers. Indeed, partnerships between corporations and non-profit arts organizations seem to represent for both sides an inevitable, if not vital, strategic tool to survive and thrive in the marketplace. However, despite increasingly successful or less successful examples of nationwide community-based collaborations between the corporate and non-profit sectors, cross-sector partnerships have rarely been addressed at a public policy level, and when it comes to the art sector, at a cultural policy level. By reviewing and analyzing literature from the early 1990s to the present, this study intends to better understand the value of such cross-organizational practices and its further implications on society. Central to this study will be to evaluate how nonprofits’ increased reliance upon corporate money can affect those organizations’ missions and how cross-sector alliances can address and respond to community needs. Last, by emphasizing major issues such as possible areas of collaboration, strategies, and potential dangers of alliances, this research project also aims at helping business professionals, arts administrators, as well as non profit managers to build partnerships in the most strategic and effective way.