The CDP’s mission is to strengthen the national nonprofit arts and cultural sector by collecting and disseminating comprehensive, high-quality longitudinal data that supports fact-based decision-making in three key ways:
- It helps arts and cultural organizations improve their financial management and services to their communities.
- It enables researchers, advocates and policymakers to better tell the story of the sector’s assets, contributions and needs.
- It helps funders more effectively plan for and evaluate their individual and collective grantmaking activities.
The CDP is an emerging national model for data collection for the arts and cultural sector. Organizations, funders and researchers alike will have access to the best data available, as reported by the organizations themselves.
Growth
In 2004, the CDP was launched in Pennsylvania as a statewide, web-based data collection system for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations. Based on the success in Pennsylvania, Maryland was the first additional state to adopt the project in 2007, followed by California in 2008. In 2009, the CDP will be implemented in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio. Conversations about bringing the CDP to additional states are also taking place in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota and New Jersey.
The CDP plans to be in operation in as many as 22 states by the end of 2014, engaging up to 70 percent of all cultural organizations throughout the country that apply for public and/or private funding. All geographic regions — including states with a large number of users and areas with diverse populations — as well as organizations of varying disciplines and sizes will be represented.
Project Governance
The Pew Charitable Trusts operates the CDP on behalf of the CDP’s Governing Group, which has provided oversight for the CDP since its inception. The CDP’s Governing Group consists of:
Development Team
The Cultural Data Project was developed with the following vendors: