December 26, 2025
2025-12-26T00:01:00-05:00
This year, giving in support of arts and culture included key investments to create space—literal and figurative—for American civil society to engage with its past and to look toward a more inclusive and sustainable future.
Here are some of the top stories from 2025:
Dickinson receives $20 million to elevate Indigenous history, culture
The award to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from alumnus Samuel G. Rose will fund construction of an arts and education center named for Olympic great Jim Thorpe….
(11/6/2025)
Funders back Literary Arts Fund with $50 million to boost field
Funding from the Ford, Hawthorne, Lannan, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, Andrew W. Mellon, and Poetry foundations will bolster the work of hundreds of nonprofit service organizations and publishers working to broaden and expand American literary culture….
(10/29/2025)
National Constitution Center receives $15 million from Ken Griffin
The gift—the single largest in the Philadelphia institution’s history—from the founder and CEO of Citadel Capital will support the creation of an exhibition gallery focused on America’s founding principles….
(05/15/2025)
Jackie Robinson Foundation, Museum receive $20 million gift
A two-year award from the Dodgers’ principal owner Mark Walter and Thomas Tull, his co-chair at TWG Global, will support the foundation’s college scholarship program and fund the Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City, celebrating the life of the baseball great….
(12/18/2025)
Charlotte Symphony boosts endowment with $50 million campaign
The 93-year-old North Carolina orchestra raised the funds over three years and will use the income from its fortified endowment to fund 15 percent of its annual budget—in line with its peers across the country….
(06/02/2025)
Wayne State University receives $3.2 million for jazz programming
The gift to the Detroit school from the estate of the late Carhartt heiress Gretchen Valade will create a permanent source of revenue for the university’s jazz center, named in her honor….
(07/12/2025)
(Photo credit: Getty Images/Aleksandar Georgiev)