Today is ‪#‎GivingTuesday‬! We've come a long way in the last year, thanks in great part to our generous donors. A donation to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra today will help us to continue the great work we've started, and will help to ensure our future of bringing world class classical music to our incredible Atlanta community.

Arts & Economic Prosperity IV is our fourth study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry's impact on the economy. The most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted, it gives us a quantifiable economic impact of nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences. Using findings from 182 regions representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, an input-output economic model is able to deliver national estimates.

Quick Facts Nationally, the industry generated $135.2 billion of economic activity--$61.1 billion by the nation's nonprofit arts and culture organizations in addition to $74.1 billion in event-related expenditures by their audiences. This economic activity supports 4.13 million full-time jobs and generates $86.68 billion in resident household income. Our industry also generates $22.3 billion in revenue to local, state, and federal governments every year—a yield well beyond their collective $4 billion in arts allocations. Despite the economic headwinds that our country faced in 2010, the results are impressive.

In the dark days of the most recent economic downturn, a wise man said:

"There are many orchestras in trouble and some are even disappearing, even though the cost of one jet fighter would wipe out the deficits of all the European orchestras for 10 years. It is grotesque when cost-cutting is always at the expense of the arts. This work defines the culture in a given place at a given time. When the names of politicians are long forgotten, the people who made that culture will not be... Plato, Rubens, Beethoven, Shakespeare…"

-- Lorin Maazel, 2011

NEA Funding Restored in House Committee Earlier this week, the full House Appropriations Committee voted to restore FY15 NEA funding to the current level of $146 million, reversing an 8% cut initially offered by the Interior Subcommittee. This action demonstrates notably strong bi-partisan support for the NEA among policymakers, and represents a major departure from last summer’s attempt to slash the NEA’s budget nearly in half. Now that the bill has been approved by the Appropriations Committee, the next step will be floor consideration by the full House of Representatives. Timing of a floor vote is uncertain.  Many thanks to orchestra advocates for speaking up and telling Congress how important NEA funding is to communities nationwide.  If you’ve not yet weighed in, please make your voice heard!

Two Chicago foundations proved that they know the CSO is a vital and crucial part of their communities by giving the two largest gifts in the orchestra's history, totaling a whopping $32 million! Ticket sales often cover less than half an orchestra's budget, so we depend on the generosity of our neighbors, community partners and corporations to consistently provide quality - and affordable - live classical music every weekend. Keep up the good work, Chicago!

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