Strategic or Struggling? Professionalizing Philanthropy in Nonprofit Arts Organizations

The purpose of this chapter is to examine how the structure and role of philanthropy have come to shape the professionalization process that is occurring in performing arts organizations (PAOs) in Australia. Using resource dependency theory, interviews, and content from annual reports and websites analyzed qualitatively, we illustrate how philanthropy has shifted from a peripheral position to become of central importance over the last few decades as arts organizations have professionalized in structure and role. New structures and roles have been introduced that illustrate whether PAOs are strategic or struggling in this process. They either use whole-of-organization approaches in order to co-create value through philanthropy or are more piecemeal in their approach, with one person solely responsible for philanthropy. Our findings identified that the structure and role of philanthropy were either (1) strategically determined, enabling a whole-of-organization approach to philanthropy; or (2) precarious, discreet, and prudent but low priority, which saw the organization struggle to contribute philanthropically.