Both in the arts and beyond, money is fundamentally based on trust. Our economic system functions due to society’s trust in it, enabling cooperation and exchange. However, if we trust in money itself, why is it that in arts philanthropy, trust in artists is largely absent? The restricted nature of many forms of grantmaking—such as project-based support—imply that we lack confidence in an artist’s ability to themselves determine how to allocate funds in support of their practice.

Enter trust-based philanthropy—a type of support defined by mutuality, transparency, and unrestricted funding. This is a model that has gained popularity across the philanthropic sector, but it has yet to take hold in the arts. However, it provides a promising solution for trusting artists, offering a model for deeper, more meaningful support.

This question of trust is one that artists have been asking funders for years, a dialogue which heavily informed the development of the Rainin Fellowship—an annual program we launched with United States Artists to award four anchor artists in the San Francisco Bay Area with unrestricted grants of $100,000 and supplemental support. Fellows are empowered to spend the money on whatever they see fit. This approach recognizes that artists’ individual needs are varied and they are the best experts on how to uplift their practices. Whether they decide to spend the money on housing, healthcare, or future projects, our approach foregrounds autonomy and true impact, values that are aligned with the trust-based philanthropy model.

The Rainin Fellowship embodies trust-based philanthropy and is rooted in the work of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, a five-year, peer-to-peer funder initiative and platform that addresses the inherent power imbalances between foundations and nonprofits. Central to this model is the act of listening, and learning. In creating the Rainin Fellowship in the Bay Area, we collaborated with both national and local partners to better understand the needs of the artists in our communities.

Read the full article about trust-based arts philanthropy by Ted Russell at Artnet News.