At Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, our goal is to be an agency that trusts and cheers on the nonprofits we support – living our mission by providing flexible and reliable funding to arts and culture nonprofits. Following the passage of Issue 55 in November, we are excited to be able to continue this work with local arts and culture nonprofits through 2035.  

Last year, anticipating a successful replacement and expansion tax, CAC launched a year-long listening and learning project. This planning – which continues through 2025 – is allowing CAC to build on the current grant programs and consider policy changes. We conducted extensive research – both locally with our grantee recipients and nationally with other state and local funders. As we proceed with our work, we wanted to make sure we share back what we’ve heard. 

• Grantee Connect Series Summary. This listening series offered nonprofit arts leaders multiple ways to share their experiences with CAC. Grantee partners provided us with feedback through an anonymous survey conducted by an external research organization, at several grantee meetups and listening sessions, and in a public comment period. 

The findings are already helping CAC better understand nonprofits’ needs, identify ways we can improve, and are shaping the future of CAC grantmaking. This series is ongoing, with future opportunities to participate.  

• Local & State Arts Funder Scan. CAC also conducted a review of nine arts and culture funders across the United States that make grants using public funds. While no other public funder nationwide is structured exactly like CAC, nor do they have a declining dedicated revenue source, this scan allowed us to learn from and benchmarks ourselves against other agencies. 

Thank you to the hundreds of people from CAC-funded institutions who participated in the Grantee Connect Series, as well as the other funders that took the time to share their work with us.  

CAC’s Board and staff are using these reports to shape 2026 grantmaking and longer-term planning. At its Board meeting earlier this week, CAC’s trustees discussed how best to realistically forecast declining tax revenue over the next ten years. The work will continue at our next Board meeting in April. All policy decisions are made by the Board and in public, and we will continue to share updates along the way.  

Please visit cacgrants.org/connect for future opportunities to engage, or submit any feedback in our anonymous feedback form. You can always contact our team at info@cacgrants.org or 216-515-8303.