The deal was done. The cultural community could only brace itself for the administrative and financial fallout that would result from the expansion of sales tax to the nonprofit arts and culture sector. That was the message coming from legislators and lobbyists alike immediately following Governor Rendell's budget announcement on Friday, September 19, 2009.
At best, it was a demoralizing predicament – the state budget, which at varying points had included and excluded different prongs in the spectra of arts funding and was also 80 days overdue, hinged on an agreement to generate an additional $100 - $120 million in revenue by lifting the sales tax exemption on arts' ticket sales and memberships.
It was a predicament that needed facts – credible, correct, and quickly acquired facts – to illustrate to a group of decision-makers why their budget deal assumption was incorrect. Those facts came from the Pennsylvania Cultural Data Project (Pennsylvania CDP or PACDP) and were, to the community’s benefit, collected long before the announcement of the budget deal.
Over the past five years the collection of pertinent historical organizational data through the Pennsylvania CDP has been met with the resistance that faces any new management tool. Many have asked questions such as, "why should we devote time and resources to compiling this information?" and "how will this information lead to more informed decisions and actions internally and externally?"
Now that we have seen how its collective data builds sector reports such as the Cultural Alliance's Portfolio series and sector advocacy, it is critical that we systematically integrate the completion of the Pennsylvania CDP into our annual schedules in order to continue bringing its great benefits to our individual organizations and the field at large.
PACDP Examples & Uses
If your main reason for entering data into Pennsylvania CDP has been to quickly and easily generate funder reports, you may be missing out on ways to use your organization's data to satisfy other reporting needs. Pennsylvania CDP data can also be used to generate annual, trend, and comparison reports for key stakeholders such as legislators, board members, and accountants.
| Michener Art Museum | Jump Street | Comparisons | Future Plans |
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In the Chronicle of Philanthropy's 2009 Technology Guide, the |
Your PACDP data can also help you and others to evaluate your organization's progress over time. Even first time users are required to submit two years worth of data in order to build the basis for trends. With multiple years of data recorded, |
Once you have run reports on your own information, you can then use the Pennsylvania CDP to compare your organization to others of like genre type and budget size. This information will help you to answer questions such as, "are we spending enough on salaries?" "are we spending too much on rent?" and "how much of our budget is used on utilities?" |
Using the Pennsylvania CDP comparatively will also help you prepare for future growth. You will find answers to questions about how much money other organizations are spending in areas you want to expand and you will be able to determine whether or not to proceed with those plans. |
Once you've used the data to build reports to inform your own decision making, your information will be there for use in the sector-wide reports and to speak out collectively on behalf of the entire arts and culture sector.
PACDP Tip & Webinar Info
Leaving out the role of nonprofits in our society and why our missions conflict with the idea of being taxed, expanding Pennsylvania's sales tax to the arts and cultural sector would have been next to impossible to implement, the calculation of the tax by organizations would have been onerous, and, with all of that trouble, the resulting revenue would have been much less than anticipated.
This was a message that was intuitively known by arts administrators but it needed to be conveyed to people who did not have the experience of working in the field. The PACDP data clearly showed that from the nonprofit sector, the sales tax would only generate $13 - $15 million of the $100 - $120 million needed to fill the budget gap.
Having this data available to run as a report and then to provide to decision-makers was vitally important in the tax expansion debate. Just as Mr. Katsiff found when he needed to rely on the PACDP, "Hard data is always better than a mere philosophical argument." To be sure that your organization and the entire sector has this data on hand, it is a best practice to enter your data as soon as you receive your board-approved financials each year.
Most organizations have this information shortly following the close of the fiscal year, so why delay entering your data into the PACDP? An early start will give you adequate time to collect your organization's data from the other staff members that are needed to assist in the process and it will make it so that you will only need to click "funder report" when your first funder deadline rolls around.
The PACDP is here to help you get started by offering a series of fall workshops. Between October 20th and November 12th, the PACDP will offer four free webinars, two for new users and two for building reports. Register here to participate.