Cultural Tax Credit – Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon

Oregon arts haven’t had a raise in 20 years. Let’s fix that.

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 20:37:52 +0000

Twenty years is long enough: our 2027 legislative agenda

Dear friends,

Since 2002, the Oregon Cultural Trust tax credit has turned everyday generosity into lasting support for culture in every corner of the state. In all that time, the cap on that credit hasn’t moved. For nearly 20 years, the Oregon Arts Commission’s grants budget hasn’t moved either. Meanwhile, Oregon’s arts and culture sector keeps growing, and so does the need.

When the 2027 session opens, we will head to Salem with three top priorities:

1. Renew and expand the Cultural Trust Tax Credit
Without action, the credit sunsets on January 1, 2028. We’re proposing to renew it for six more years and raise the cap each year through 2033. By then it reaches $1,000 for individuals, $2,000 for couples, and $5,000 for corporations, which is what the original credit will be worth in 2033 after you account for inflation. Legislators also filed a companion bill that renews the credit at its current caps, a safety net in case our action stalls.

2. Invest in 11 cultural spaces across Oregon
Through the Cultural Resources Economic Fund (CREF), we’re asking for $10 million for 11 capital projects, plus $500,000 for Business Oregon to administer the grants:

Art Center East, La Grande: $250,000 for ADA renovations
Nightlab, Portland: $850,000 for lighting systems on Portland’s bridges
Britt Music and Arts Festival, Jacksonville: $2 million for a historic building renovation
Cumberland Community Events Center, Albany: $250,000 for historic restoration
Cuomo Theatre, Portland: $1 million for a building purchase and improvements
Hollywood Theatre (through Film Forever NW), Portland: $1 million for renovation
McKenzie River Discovery Center, Eugene: $2 million to build the Discovery Center
Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland, Wallowa: $250,000 for the Homeland Gathering Grounds
Portland Youth Philharmonic: $1.5 million for a building renovation
Prismid Sanctuary, Portland: $500,000 to rebuild the sanctuary
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House, Eugene: $400,000 for the Garden Terrace project

3. Bring the Oregon Arts Commission’s grants budget up to date
Between fiscal years 2017 and 2026, the number of organizations applying for Oregon Arts Commission (OAC) grants doubled, while the commission’s general fund budget stayed flat. Almost half of the nearly 1,000 organizations that applied were turned away, and because the budget hasn’t moved, each grant now covers less than it did in 2017. We’d like to increase the OAC’s budget to $9.6 million, which would in turn double the funds going out to the field.

We’re also supporting:

Restoring $10 million for the Main Street Revitalization Grant Program, led by Restore Oregon. Lawmakers pulled this funding from the 2025 budget at the last minute, which left the program unable to award capital grants.
Creating a semi-independent agency for the OAC and the Oregon Cultural Trust. This builds on House Bill 3048 from 2025, which passed its policy committee but stalled in Ways and Means. We believe a more coordinated approach will better serve arts, culture, heritage, and humanities statewide.

How you can help
Your voice carries weight in Salem, especially when legislators hear it from their own districts. Watch your inbox for action alerts and information about Advocacy Day after the session begins, and forward this email to someone who cares about culture in their community.

Thank you for standing with Oregon’s arts, heritage, and humanities.

Warmly,
The Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon

The post Oregon arts haven’t had a raise in 20 years. Let’s fix that. appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Art as the great connector: what Oregon can learn

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 18:38:56 +0000

Picture a Thursday night in any Oregon town. A community choir rehearses in a church hall, while neighbors attend a local poet’s reading at the library next door. A new national study suggests that rooms like these may be where civic life begins, at a time when Americans report feeling more isolated than they have in years.

What the research found
In April 2026, the National Endowment for the Arts released The Great Connector, an analysis of three national surveys conducted in 2022 or later. In the largest, adults who took part in the arts showed a 386% increase in their likelihood of volunteering, attending community events, and other civic engagement, even after accounting for education, income, and age.

A 2025 Census survey found a smaller but significant 17% increase, and a third survey found no overall link once other factors were controlled.

Three findings stand out:

Showing up in person matters most. Live attendance carried the strongest link, a 125% increase.
Breadth builds on itself. People who attend, create, and give showed the highest engagement of all.
The link crosses lines. It held across race, income, and urban, suburban, and rural communities.

The bottom line? Arts programming offers an evidence-based way to build connection.

Why Oregon is already built for this

In 2001, the Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Cultural Tax Credit, still the only model of its kind in the country. Oregonians who give to a qualifying cultural nonprofit can make a matching gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust and claim it back in full on their state taxes. This fiscal year, that system is sending a record $4.5 million to more than 450 organizations. A quarter of the grants go to 45 county and Tribal cultural coalitions, reaching every county and Tribe, with added support for rural areas.

The grants fund in-person gatherings, from free Bend Pops Orchestra concerts to a Native youth composition workshop paired with a symphony and Indigenous drumming performance in Wallowa County. And every matching gift makes an Oregonian a supporter of the arts, which the report linked to a 127% increase in civic engagement.

Keeping the connector connected

None of this happens by accident. The Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon (CACO) formed in 1998 to advocate in Salem for policies and funding that help arts, heritage, history, and the humanities thrive across the state. We are member funded and nonpartisan.

Like most Oregon tax credits, the Cultural Tax Credit carries a sunset date, and lawmakers must vote to extend it. We have testified for its renewal in past sessions, and The Great Connector adds a new argument to that case: arts participation travels with the civic habits that keep a democracy healthy. Renewing the credit sustains one of the few statewide systems built to bring Oregonians together, in person, in every county.

What you can do
Oregonians can strengthen that path in a few practical ways:

Show up and make something. Attend a performance or join a choir, band, or class, and bring a neighbor.
Use the Cultural Tax Credit. Give to a cultural nonprofit, match the gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust by December 31, and claim it on your state taxes.
Join CACO and talk to your legislators. Ask them to renew the Cultural Tax Credit.

The choir in the church hall is not separate from civic life. It’s where civic life begins.

The post Art as the great connector: what Oregon can learn appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Record funding, uncertain future: save the Cultural Tax Credit

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 23:10:38 +0000

The Oregon Cultural Trust has announced $4.5 million in awards, its largest distribution to date, reaching more than 450 cultural nonprofits in every corner of the state.
Read the full story in Oregon ArtsWatch

By the numbers:

– $2,250,846 in Cultural Development Grants to 104 organizations ($5,000 to $40,000 each)

– $1,125,423 to County and Tribal cultural coalitions, distributed per capita across all 36 counties and Oregon’s federally recognized Tribes

– $1,125,423 to five statewide cultural partners

– Contributions from more than 10,000 Oregonians to make it possible

– 49% of eligible applicants receiving 75 to 100% of what they requested

What’s at stake

Every dollar of that $4.5 million traces back to the Cultural Tax Credit, the match Oregonians claim when they give to a qualified cultural nonprofit and give an equal amount to the Oregon Cultural Trust. That credit has never been adjusted for inflation since its creation, and it must be renewed by the legislature in 2027.

The gap in the last statistic above, the fact that roughly half of eligible applicants still received less than three-quarters of what they asked for, is exactly what raising the caps is meant to close. We are working with Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland) on legislation to renew the credit and raise the caps, currently $500 for single filers, $1,000 for joint filers, and $2,500 for corporations.

Two things you can do:

– Give before December 31. Match your gift to a qualified cultural nonprofit with a gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust and claim the full credit on your Oregon return.

– Contact your legislator. Let them know you support renewing the Cultural Tax Credit and raising the caps.

Thank you for your support!

The post Record funding, uncertain future: save the Cultural Tax Credit appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

A Banner Legislative Session for Arts & Culture!

Sue Hildick — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 15:06:00 +0000

Dear Advocates and Policymakers,
It is with deep gratitude that we celebrate the end of the legislative session as of yesterday. Thank you to the Cultural Advocacy Coalition’s dedicated advocates, supporters and friends, who spoke out and encouraged investment in creative expression for all Oregonians.
THANK YOU to Oregon’s policymakers, who took important steps to invest in our cultural sector. We look forward to the Governor signing all of the following bills passed by the Senate and House this week:

Extend the Cultural Trust Tax Credit for 6 more years (HB 2164)
Extend special tax assessments for historic preservation properties for 2 more years (HB 2164)
Fund Capital Investment Projects (HB 5030 & HB 5050)- Total of $5,125,000:
- Lincoln City Cultural Center – $1.5M for an exterior plaza
- Beaverton Arts Foundation – $1.5M for the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
- Liberty Theatre– $1M for stage house and facilities improvements
- Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center – $500,000 for preservation and renovations
- Cottage Theatre – $375,000 for theatre expansion
- High Desert Museum – $250,000 for exhibit and gallery
2019-2021 Budgets for the Cultural Trust and the Oregon Arts Commission have been funded at the Governor’s recommended levels (SB 5524)
Renew the provision to spend cultural trust license plate monies on the marketing and promotion of the Trust (HB 2377)

Also in support of the cultural sector, the legislature provided funding for Oregon Public Broadcasting, and the Oregon Historical Society, long-standing members of the Cultural Advocacy Coalition.
Nearly all of our legislative priorities were adopted. We will be back in the 2020 session with a request to increase the amount of the Cultural Trust license plate by at least $5 a plate. We will continue to work with the Governor and the boards of the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Oregon Arts Commission on two concerning issues: 1) Increasing administrative costs, and, 2) Decreasing contributions to the Trust.
With many thanks and forward momentum!
Thank you.

Dr. Nancy Golden
Board of Directors President
Cultural Advocacy Coalition
P.S. If you haven’t yet joined our Coalition, we’d love to have you. Join us today by making a gift on our website.

The post A Banner Legislative Session for Arts & Culture! appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.

Have you joined the Coalition yet?

Sue Hildick — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 08:10:29 +0000

Hello friends,
I want to make sure you are aware of the importance of the current legislative session to the cultural sector in Oregon and funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Oregon Arts Commission. This is the year that the cultural tax credit expires. The credit builds the Trust and must be renewed. We feel certain that since so many of Oregon’s nonprofits have received funds under this program, you are a critical part of Oregon’s cultural fabric and committed to the goal of creating access to creative expression across this state.

We cannot lose this important and unique engagement tool. We urge you to speak out in support of its continuation. You can “pay it forward” today to insure these funds exist in the future for all organizations. The Cultural Advocacy Coalition, which now has hundreds of individual and organizational members, is the only advocacy group lobbying in Salem to continue this tax credit and grow public funding for arts and culture. We depend on members across Oregon to finance this advocacy effort.
We urge you to join our Coalition, either as an individual or as an organization or business. Not only will we keep you apprised of key legislative developments in Salem, we will make sure you know about the timelines and processes for capital construction grants. The Coalition reviews capital construction projects from across the state for expanding access to arts and culture and recommends a slate to the legislature each cycle. If you are anticipating building, renovating or improving your space, this could be your opportunity to be considered for state funded lottery bonds. If you can join with us, please do so today! We have a sliding scale for membership based on budget size, which begins at just $100 a year.
Thank you for your daily contributions to Oregon’s quality of life.

Become a Coalition member today.

Dr. Nancy Golden
President, Cultural Advocacy Coalition
P.S. Organizational memberships depend upon annual budget size: $100 ($0-$99,999); $250 ($100,000 – $499,999); $500 ($500,000 – $999,999); $1,000 ($1,000,000 – $1,999,999); $2,500 ($2,000,000 – $3,999,999), $5,000 ($4,000,000 – $5,999,999) and $7,500 ($6,000,000+). Individual memberships start at $50 for “Friend of the CAC” and continue up to $1,000 for “Benefactor”.

The post Have you joined the Coalition yet? appeared first on Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon.