Why don't more private foundations fund arts advocacy? Worse, why are we seeing funders across the country moving away from the supporting the arts at all? These were key questions that the leadership of the State Arts Action Network brought with us to Boston for the 2016 Americans for the Arts Convention.

To address the issue at a pre-conference breakout, Matthew Wilson of MASSCreative invited San San Wong of the Barr Foundation and Allyson Esposito of The Boston Foundation to speak to SAAN representatives drawn from statewide advocacy organizations from around the country. Both San San and Allyson described how their foundations are leading the way in terms of reframing the value of the arts to communities while making the case for funding advocacy that works to increase support for the arts.

Both foundations have unapologetically embraced the arts and advocacy for the arts as being core to their larger goal of bettering the lives of the people of greater Boston. Allyson told the SAAN group that her foundation is so committed to affecting public policy that the funder actually employs its own lobbyist. They actively press state and city leaders around issues impacting the arts. The Boston Foundation takes its case making beyond the public sector to solicit increased private support of the arts. Allyson related that she and her team have seen encouraging success in their efforts to tap increased support for the arts from individual donors.

From the Barr Foundation (now being led by recent Bay Area transplants Jim Canales, formerly of the Irvine Foundation, as President and San San Wong, previously with the San Francisco Arts Commission, as Arts Programs Director), SAAN representatives learned that the foundation had recently completed a strategic planning process that identified three main focus areas: climate change, education, and arts and creativity. San San told the SAAN that Barr supports advocacy in all three focus areas, working to develop leaders and advocacy groups across Massachusetts and New England.

For Barr, it's important to cultivate a strong advocacy infrastructure in order to activate public support of the arts. Barr, San San told the group, is looking to ensure that "the pre-existing conditions for policy change are in place."

Both Barr and The Boston Foundation have been active in the formulation of Boston's new Cultural Plan, which was officially unveiled by Mayor Marty Walsh on the opening day of the Convention. It was the hope of these two funders to reframe the conversation in advocacy, to move the discussion away from what the arts need to how the arts can benefit the larger community. In the process of developing Boston's Cultural Plan, and now as it begins to roll out, The Boston Foundation was interested in finding service organizations to speak independently about the sector. Both funders agreed on their desire to strengthen the region's advocacy infrastructure, support research and the development of cultural policy, and work toward building public will around support for the arts.

Given the enthusiasm of their two foundations for the arts and advocacy for the arts, the SAAN wondered why other funders shied away from arts advocacy. San San summed it up in one word: "Risk." Foundations are naturally conservative and many fear that with advocacy come financial, legal, and reputational risks.

But the benefits for these two foundations clearly outweigh the risks. As San San put it, the goal is to move beyond looking at the "outputs" of a grantee toward developing and advancing a vision for the larger community that is shared by the funder and the grantee. That goal is bigger than anything one foundation can do alone. And so funders like Barr and The Boston Foundation turn to the public sector to act as a partner. Philanthropy and nonprofits need the public sector in order to "scale up," as San San put it, to achieve a vision of a thriving and equitable society where every resident has full access to the arts and where creativity is something found everyday in their lives and in their communities.

It's a vision I'm taking away from Boston to share with the advocates and funders at home.