Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Nonprofit Finance Fund Kick Off Bold $15.125 Million Arts Initiative to Address Sector-Wide Challenges

10 Arts Organizations Receive Grants to Explore Promising New Business Practices and Programs

New York -October 14, 2008- Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) today announced the ten leading arts organizations that will participate in a landmark, $15.125 million initiative designed to explore new business and funding models for the sector. Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, NFF's 5-year program will allow each nonprofit to tackle sector-wide challenges such as shifting audiences, decreased funding sources, and new technologies. New York's Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company are among the pioneering groups that will participate in the program.

Leading for the Future: Innovative Support for Artistic Excellence, offers grant recipients significant funding, technical assistance, and NFF advisory services as they implement their promising programmatic, financial and operating innovations to strengthen their business models. The initiative will allow participants to test new ways for the performing arts field to bolster organizational capacity, mitigate financial risk, and increase the ability to offer top-notch relevant programming.

"'Business as usual' is no longer an option for many nonprofit arts organizations, and standard funding practices give them little room to invest in bold and experimental solutions to economic challenges," said Ben Cameron, Director for the Arts for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. "We in the funding community must be willing to take risks to test new ideas