Asian Arts Organizations Struggle to Court New Donors

In many parts of Asia, raising new sources of money for arts groups can be a major challenge, The Wall Street Journal reports. While some arts organizations, such as the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, which averages donations of about $260,000 a year, have been able to successfully court individual donors, most groups are struggling to break through the pervasive cultural mindset that philanthropic donations are better funneled elsewhere, according to the paper.

“Most Asians still believe the bigger issues they need to address are education and health care,” says John Peralta, managing director of Global Philanthropic Inc., a Hong Kong consulting firm that advises nonprofit groups on raising money and wealthy people on giving it away.

In other parts of the world, performing-arts organizations rely heavily on individual donors. At the American Ballet Theatre, in New York, for instance, the U.S. government provides only 2.5 percent of annual operating costs, compared with 27 percent from individual donors. At the Royal Opera House, in London, donations from individuals and corporations covered 18 percent of operating costs last year.

In Malaysia, however, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, created in 1998 with money from the state-owned oil and gas company Petronas, still relies on that corporation for more than 50 percent of its annual operating budget and has no individual donors, according to Seah Lu Sean, its manager of business development.

Says Emma Wang, a spokeswoman for the National Ballet of China, the country’s only classical-dance corps: “We can’t even sell tickets to our performances, much less get sponsorships for our dancers.”