{"id":225983,"date":"2025-10-02T10:44:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/?p=225983"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:38:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:38:22","slug":"how-the-prebys-foundation-provided-a-lifeline-to-arts-groups-affected-by-federal-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/home\/how-the-prebys-foundation-provided-a-lifeline-to-arts-groups-affected-by-federal-cuts","title":{"rendered":"How the Prebys Foundation Provided a Lifeline to Arts Groups Affected by Federal Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Earlier this year, with the Trump administration poised to decimate large swaths of crucial funding for the nonprofit sector, leaders at the Prebys Foundation, the largest independent private foundation in San Diego County, sensed that its grantee partners would be confronting unprecedented and potentially existential challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife sciences and biotech were under immediate threat,\u201d said CEO Grant Oliphant. \u201cWe quickly radiated from that to look at our work among other areas, and the arts were front and center.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, we know what happened next. The National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities terminated previously earmarked grants, leaving grantee leaders to contend with a gaping hole in their organizations\u2019 revenue bases. While some philanthropies have stepped up with funding lifelines \u2014 such as the Mellon Foundation\u2019s support for humanities councils<\/a> \u2014 the situation is dire. Moreover, in San Diego, arts nonprofit leaders told Oliphant and his team they were having trouble plugging gaps because many of their donors had pivoted toward other areas<\/a> that had been subjected to federal funding cuts, like housing and food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliphant and his team crunched the numbers to determine the most effective way to provide organizations with short-term assistance while preserving the foundation\u2019s long-term grantmaking capacity.<\/a> \u201cWe calculated for this year \u2014 and we believe this will be true next year as well \u2014 that we could go $25 million above and beyond our normal grantmaking,\u201d he said, \u201cand still preserve our assets for the long haul, for the good of San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 16, the foundation announced the results of its exercise \u2014 $13.375 million in emergency funding<\/a> to 61 San Diego arts and culture organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when countless foundation decision makers are grappling with how to respond to the administration\u2019s cuts, the Prebys Foundation\u2019s strategic calculus underscores how a funder can dig deep to keep grantees afloat<\/a> while not jeopardizing its ability to get grants out the door long-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe there are short-term periods where foundations, if they can, should go above and beyond to respond to the immediate needs of the moment,\u201d Oliphant said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019ve worked really hard to try and balance that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bit of background on the Prebys Foundation<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Fern Street Community Arts Inc., a 2024 recipient of the Prebys Foundation\u2019s Healing Through the Arts & Nature grant. Credit: Edgar Ontiveros Medina, Prebys Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1933, Conrad Prebys moved to California in 1965 with $500 in his pocket.<\/a> He immersed himself in San Diego\u2019s real estate industry and accumulated a vast portfolio of properties. Named one of the 25 most generous people in the world by Business Insider in 2012, he passed away in 2016<\/a>, leaving almost the entirety of his fortune to the foundation that bears his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prebys Foundation launched in 2020 and dove into its first year of extensive grantmaking in 2021. It has approximately $1.2 billion in net assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foundation\u2019s primary focus areas are medical research, healthcare, arts and culture and youth development. In addition, \u201cwe have a lot of work that we’re doing at the intersections of those things in the context of all the pressures society is under today,\u201d Oliphant said. This work includes disbursing grants earmarked for organizations engaged in work on climate change<\/a>, journalism and a culture of belonging<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the foundation\u2019s $13.375 million in emergency funding to San Diego arts and culture organizations, $8.625 million came in the form of unrestricted general operating support<\/a> to 22 nonprofits. The tranche also includes $4.75 million for venues and spaces funding to 39 organizations to \u201cpreserve and enhance affordable, accessible places for creativity and connection.\u201d Recipients included cultural anchors like La Jolla Playhouse, the San Diego Museum of Art and the San Diego Symphony, as well as an array of grassroots community art groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we rolled out was 100% a result of a conversation that we had with a cross section of our grantees and our board early in the summertime,\u201d Oliphant said. \u201cWe asked them, \u2018What if you could write the ticket for what you need in this moment, understanding that it couldn’t be repeated or repeated too many times?\u2019 And the round of funding that we rolled out was effectively designed by them in that session.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration\u2019s actions have had a chilling effect on donors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every funding leader I\u2019ve spoken with over the last nine months has told me that federal funding cuts have affected grantee partners across the board,<\/a> and Oliphant was no exception. \u201cWe\u2019ve had organizations all across our portfolio that have lost substantial amounts of money,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prebys Foundation\u2019s conversations with its grantee partners in the arts and culture field painted a disconcerting picture. Losing funding was bad enough, but what was equally alarming was that the administration took an axe to what have been top priorities for arts funders across the last decade \u2014 diversifying audiences<\/a> and boosting accessibility.<\/a>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the themes that emerged from our conversations with grantees was that they were losing money for any effort that was designed to diversify their audiences or attract new audiences,\u201d Oliphant said. \u201cAny money that had to do with community outreach and engaging the community more broadly \u2014 those funds were being cut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, grantees told Oliphant and his team that the hostility emanating from Washington, D.C., has had a chilling effect across its donor base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe other piece of this is \u2014 let me see if I can state this succinctly \u2014 fear,<\/em>\u201d Oliphant said. \u201cI think there is a cross-current among donors who are wondering where organizations are in terms of what they\u2019re allowed to do<\/a> and what they\u2019re allowed to say. This has been such a chilling time where there are clear efforts to intimidate organizations out of doing certain types of work, and that goes upstream to the donor community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ripple effects don\u2019t end there. The arts and culture field has always had to contend with the perception that it ranks toward the bottom of society\u2019s hierarchy of need.<\/a> But the administration\u2019s assault on civil society has been so widespread that some donors are redirecting funding that would have normally gone to an arts organization toward affected groups in fields like food security<\/a>, housing and public health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDonors have been hearing from organizations across the community about significant impacts on the work that is being done,\u201d Oliphant said. \u201cThis is everything from medical research institutions<\/a> that are losing hundreds of millions of dollars, down to an arts organization that lost $20,000. Each cut is significant in its own way, but if you\u2019re a donor in the community, it\u2019s a lot to hold in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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