At a time when diminishing government support means private philanthropy is more important to the arts than ever before, donations to arts and cultural organizations participating in the 2026 Giving Challenge were up slightly from the previous 24-hour online fundraiser two years ago.

The 123 organizations in the Challenge that designated arts and culture as their primary cause received nearly $3.3 million (including matching funds), an average of $26,774 per organization, from more than 17,000 individual donors.

By comparison, two year ago, arts organizations raised just under $3 million, averaging $25,438 from 15,854 donors.  

Venice Theatre, which is still in the process of rebuilding its mainstage Jervy Theatre, destroyed by Hurricane Ian in 2022, was number one among all arts organizations and number 4 among the 751 total organizations in the Challenge, bringing in $203,518 from 707 donors. This included the Patterson Foundation match on donations up to $100, prize money and an additional match from longtime supporters Steve and Redenta Picazio, which meant many donations were tripled.

“I always joked that if we could get close to the cat people, that would be great,” said Kristofer Geddie, the theater’s executive director, referencing the animal organizations that traditionally top the Challenge’s leaderboard. “It turns out we did a little better.”

Geddie said the organization had set a goal of number of donors rather than a dollar amount. But while the number of individuals contributing to the theater actually fell from 2024 levels, total donations exceeded expectations. He attributed that to the relationship the organization has established within the community.

“Venice Theatre has made a concentrated effort to let the community know how much we love this community and they’re responding back with the same love,” he said. “We’re very grateful.”

The Sarasota Pops, which brought in more than $123,000 with an average of $95 per donor, finished 16^th in the overall standings, representing a huge surge in support.

“It’s remarkable to reflect on how far we’ve come,” said Board Chair Jack Barnett. “In our first Giving Challenge in 2013, we raised just $2,075 from 24 donors. To see where we are today is nothing short of extraordinary.”

Florida Studio Theatre, which has participated in the Challenge since its beginnings in 2012, finished just short of the top 20, raising $105,543 from 640 donors to finish 21^st overall.

FST’s Managing Director Rebecca Hopkins, said expectations were unpredictable in the early years of the fundraiser, but it has become such a reliable benefit, it is now a line item in the organization’s budget during Challenge years.

“In the early years, we didn’t really know what it would do,” she said. “Now we know it’s a funding opportunity for us and we budget accordingly.  We like Giving Challenge years because we know we’ll get that extra boost in the spring. If they canceled it, it would not be good.”

Hopkins also praised the way the event has evolved since its first year, when the Challenge ran from midnight to midnight (rather than the current noon to noon) and it was a race against time for a set amount of matching funds.

“We had to make sure we took advantage of the match on the front end because it was gone quick,” she said. “As fun as it was, we were toast when we had to head into the theater that night. Honestly, that it starts at noon now is one of the best things.”

Hopkins appreciated that FST donors showed up with pledges despite the fact that the Challenge coincided with the organization’s pitch for renewal of subscriptions for next season.

Several other arts leaders expressed gratitude that donors were generous despite “all the things happening the world” and the fact that the fundraiser coincided this year with a day, April 15, when many people owe money to the federal government.

“I thought that was such a dumb thing making it tax day,” said Carole Kleinberg, artistic director of the Jewish Theater.

Nevertheless, Kleinberg said, “I nearly broke my arm patting myself on the back” for her budget projection of what the fundraiser would bring in for the organization she began six years ago; she’d estimated $24,000 and the theater, which has been on its own for just four years, brought in $23,214. That was more than double the approximately $10,000 the nonprofit received during its first Giving Challenge in 2024.

What the additional money will help pay for, however, is more sobering. Since the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Detroit last March, the organization has had to hire security guards for each of its performances, which are presented in the space it shares with The Players at the Crossings at Siesta Key Mall. It will also help boost salaries for staff who have been operating on skeletal wages.

“This money can be a game changer for us, it allows us to kick it up a notch,” Kleinberg said. “Not just the quality of the work we do, but our ability to pay people who’ve worked so hard for very little wages.”

WSLR/Fogartyville Community Media & Arts hosted a 24-hour telethon during the Challenge, in the style of the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons Jerry Lewis hosted over Labor Day weekend for four decades. Other arts organizations collaborated with partner nonprofits to host “Pop-up Giving Stations” – in person events, often with entertainment, where donors could give on the spot. One event, at the SPAACES art gallery, included visual art, live music and improvisational dance contributed by Sarasota Contemporary Dance (SCD).

For its efforts, SCD garnered $18,790, slightly short of its goal and slightly less than it raised two years ago. Still, the amount represents a little less than 4 percent of the organization’s total budget, said SCD Treasurer and former Board Chair Dan Barzel. That’s significant for an organization that was forced to briefly go on hiatus last summer during a funding crisis and board shuffle after Sarasota County’s Tourist Development Cultural/Arts grants were cut.

“It puts it on a par with one of our top 10 donors,” Barzel said. “Same with TDCA. If we don’t get that, you have to go to individual donors and beg. Your livelihood depends on people’s generosity.”

Over the past two years, both county and state funding for the arts has been curtailed or eliminated entirely, which has particularly impacted smaller organizations like SCD and the Sarasota Cuban Ballet, who lack the wealthy philanthropic “angels” enjoyed by larger nonprofits like Asolo Repertory Theatre and The Sarasota Ballet.

The Challenge also represents a lifeline for brand new organizations like Tania Vergara Dance-Theater, which was participating in the event for the first time, having just received its 501(c) 3 status last year. The contemporary ballet company, formerly known as Endedans, raised close to $13,000 (including several anonymous donations), exceeding its internal goal of $10,000. The money will go directly toward paying dancers for rehearsal and performance time for three upcoming shows the nonprofit had already scheduled without knowing for sure where the money to pay its dancers would come from.

“We’re so new and we’re on a shoestring budget, so anything is really helpful,” said Board Chair Janis Wasserman. “And it will help us build a history so we’ll be looked at more seriously by other foundations.”

While most organizations relied on heavy email blasts before and during the Challenge to bring attention to the fundraiser and prompt supporters to give, others got more creative with their marketing tactics.  Perhaps the most extensive and outside-the-box campaign was mounted by the Urbanite Theatre, which raised a total of nearly $80,000 (including a match incentive from an anonymous donor), capitalizing on the Challenge’s “Be the One” slogan by tying it to the theater’s current production of “The Apiary,” which is all about bees.

“We used that to our advantage,” said co-founder and ((Producing Artistic)) Director Summer Wallace. “We tried to hit it from every angle.”

The theater had rack cards, mailers and t-shirts printed with their “apiary-inspired” “Bee the one!” promotion, as well as creating five different video appeals using the same slogan. Wallace herself got in on the action, giving a pre-curtain speech pretending to be a scientist in a laboratory, as did her dog, who she dressed in a bee costume and posed on top of a beekeepers box to use as a “thermometer” to gauge the rising level of donations. The nonprofit’s final video showed the entire staff dancing in the theater to a “Bee the one” song they created.

“We really wanted to capitalize not only on the play we were doing,” Wallace said, “but also to lean into the fact that, at the Urbanite, you’re really supporting the art itself.”

Top 10 Arts & Cultural Nonprofits in 2026 Giving Challenge

1. Venice Theater: $203,518

2. WSLR/Fogartyville Community Media & Arts Center: $132,285

3. The Pops Orchestra of Bradenton and Sarasota: $123,205

4. WUSF Public Media and Classical WSMR: $114,906

5. Florida Studio Theatre: $105,543

6. WEDU PBS: $98,399

7. Manatee Performing Arts Center (Florida Cultural Group Inc.): $91,881

8. Sarasota Orchestra: $90,470

9. Westcoast Black Theater Troupe: $86,187

10. The Venice Symphony: $84,105