United Arts Funds (UAFs) are local arts agencies whose main function is to raise money from local individuals, businesses, and foundations to regrant to local arts institutions and provide support to the cultural community. UAFs seek to raise money to provide ongoing support to arts groups by consolidating cultural fundraising efforts in one organization, and use their knowledge of the cultural community to disperse the funds accordingly.

Traditionally, UAFs have funded operations or programmatic grants to the core institutions that define their city’s cultural identity–the symphony, ballet, opera, theater, and museum. Now, allocations are increasingly more open to the diversity of the community, requiring receiving organizations to reflect the differences and needs of the whole community through project grants, capital grants, capacity building grants, and neighborhood and community grants. Today, UAFs around the country are shifting toward the role of local arts agencies–involving themselves in cultural planning, implementing programs that engage the community through the arts, and providing capacity-building programs and other services to arts organizations in the region.

The UAF movement began in 1949, when civic leaders in Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY, determined that a collaborative fundraising effort would be more effective than individual campaigns. Over the past 65 years, more than 100 communities across the country–both large and small–have established UAFs. There are currently 40 UAFs operating in the United States as of March 2019.

If you are a current UAF member, log in to access special tools and reports that have tracked the success of campaigns around the country since 2002. This page also contains other tools and resources useful to UAF administrators. If you are not operating a UAF but would like to view stats from our most recent report, learn more from our United Arts Funds Fiscal Year 2020 Fact Sheet. Browse through the map of the extensive network of UAFs below to find and contact one in your state or region. If you are interested in learning more about starting a UAF in your community, contact the Private Sector Initiatives team.

To locate United Arts Funds please search the Arts Services Directory.

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Mr. Todd Cunningham's picture

Just a little over five years ago, we began researching whether a United Arts Fund (UAF) would be of benefit to our community, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Americans for the Arts defines a UAF as a combined or federated campaign (either limited in time frame or accruing all-year) that raises unrestricted...

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This is a pivotal moment for Seattle. King County, Washington is experiencing rapid growth, attracting new companies and a diversifying, expanding population. We are also grappling with pressing challenges around education, homelessness, healthcare and mental health, workforce...

Ms. Alecia T. Kintner's picture

The Business Committee on the Arts, an organization started by David Rockefeller in 1966, celebrated the many ways that the arts bring people together on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in New York City. We at ArtsWave were proud that Cincinnati once again “made the list” with our own...

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Dec 17, 2020

Americans for the Arts is pleased to announce the release of the 2020 Statistical Report on Campaign Revenues of the Nation’s United Arts Funds during the Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020. During a singularly difficult year, UAFs rose to the challenge to secure needed funds for their communities, reporting aggregate 2020 campaign revenue of $73.9 million.

Jun 22, 2020

Christen Boone is the President & CEO of the Fund for the Arts in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the country’s largest privately funded regional arts agencies. She has developed thousands of unique partnerships between the creative and private sectors, driving workplace culture, client cultivation, project innovation, DEI initiatives, and social impact. 

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Apr 22, 2019

United Arts Funds are private organizations that raise money for the arts, work to broaden support for the arts, encourage arts attendance and participation, promote excellence in the arts and arts management, and ensure that arts organizations are financially stable.

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Apr 01, 2016

Work for Art, the United Arts Fund campaign of Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC), is hosting its first ever corporate battle of the bands.

Nov 17, 2015

After 29 years of Army service, veteran Fred Johnson is leading efforts in a different kind of community building. Thanks to the veteran re-integration services of Where Opportunity Knox, Johnson found an exciting position as Director of Workplace Giving for Fund for The Arts. The organization, a United Arts Fund, raises money from the corporate community and elsewhere to support arts organizations in the Louisville area.

Sep 21, 2015

As part of its recently released Blueprint for Collective Action for the Arts initiative, Cincinnati-based United Arts Fund, ArtsWave, has announced its’ new strategy will allocate funding based on five community goals.