ST. PAUL, MN, August 10, 2026 — Jerome Foundation will invest an additional $12 million in artists, culture bearers, and arts organizations across Minnesota and New York City. This funding will provide flexible and responsive resources during this time of compounding challenges, including steep declines in revenues, federal and state funding cuts, rising operational costs, censorship, and political threats.
Minnesota and New York City’s deeply rooted arts communities are working to meet the rising demand for programming and services, amid mounting financial, social, and political concerns. “The connection and cultural solace that artists, culture bearers, and arts leaders offer is essential—opening space for us to process shared struggle, imagine new possibilities, and stay socially tied together as public funding, civic infrastructure, and social trust are being eroded,” stated Jerome Board Chair Lori Pourier.
Jerome Foundation will distribute this investment through its existing partnerships with nonprofits and its grant programs for artists in Minnesota and New York City from FY27–FY30, to stabilize and sustain artists, culture bearers, and arts organizations in meeting the urgent needs of their communities
“We recognize that this moment of overlapping crises calls on us to move the money and invest more resources now to keep arts organization doors open and the artists and culture bearers supported to continue working,” said Jerome Foundation President Eleanor Savage. “Our concern is that if we don’t step up now, we risk losing vital cultural infrastructure.”
The increase comes amid mounting pressure across the arts sectors reflected in national data as well as reports from artists and arts leaders. A recent national survey of artists conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for the Mellon Foundation found that 57% of artists worry about at least one form of financial vulnerability, including housing, food, or medical care. Nearly half of nonprofit arts organizations ran a deficit in 2024, according to SMU DataArts, and their financial capacity has shrunk by more than a third since 2021.
As part of this commitment, Jerome has formally joined Change Philanthropy's Level Up Pledge, adding its name to more than 40 funders—including the MacArthur Foundation, Butler Family Fund, Headwaters Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, and McKnight Foundation—who have committed to raise grantmaking by 20% or more (or sustain an 8%+ payout rate) for at least two fiscal years, move funds quickly and flexibly, and publicly report on whether they followed through.
Jerome’s board-approved increase joins this broader wave of funders stepping up their giving in response to the moment. Jerome Foundation raised its payout from the IRS-required 5% minimum to at least 6.25% in 2025, responding to the crisis created by federal funding freezes. That same year, Northwest Area Foundation doubled its grantmaking and MacArthur Foundation increased its grantmaking to 6%.
Jerome’s additional $12 million of funding will expand beyond their 6.25% grantmaking to increase support for current individual artist and culture bearer programs, provide flexible funding to stabilize and sustain current arts organization partners, and respond to emerging needs within the Minnesota and New York City arts ecosystems.
“Jerome believes that our commitments to belonging and equity require a commitment of resources to back them up,” said Savage. “This is our way of saying, clearly, that we don’t ask the artists and organizations to stay in a permanent state of survival. We value you. We need you to keep going. And, as the value of our invested assets continues to grow, it is imperative that we move those dollars into the hands of artists and arts leaders to continue nourishing your work, as you continue nourishing our communities.”
