Wanted: Donations for the arts in the Kansas City area

The Kansas City area’s ArtsKC Fund has launched its 2017 fundraising campaign to support local artists and arts organizations.

Fund organizers encourage area businesses and other organizations to hold workplace events to inform employees about the arts community and then use automatic payroll deductions to direct the philanthropy.

The ArtsKC Regional Arts Council isn’t stating a specific fundraising goal this year. The 2016 campaign received pledges totaling $500,203.

The campaign particularly hopes to engage workers to pledge monthly support, much like a United Way campaign.

Such workplace-related commitments last year generated 27 percent of the total donations. The rest came from individual donors apart from the workplace campaigns (20 percent); corporate gifts (16 percent); foundations (16 percent); the city of Kansas City (15 percent); and special events revenue (6 percent).

Since 2007, the ArtsKC Fund has invested in more than 150 organizations and nearly 200 artists. It has channeled more than 900 grants valued at more than $4.6 million.

Meanwhile, the regional arts council continues its search for a new executive director. No immediate timetable has been announced to replace Bruce Davis, who left the position at the end of 2016.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Wanted: Donations for the arts in the Kansas City area."