Doris Duke Charitable Foundation: the performing arts and audience engagement model

The Strategy

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) Performing Arts program funds contemporary dance, jazz, theater, and presenting organizations. Their funding has shifted from supporting productions to supporting organizational capacity and audience engagement. The audience engagement framing: DDCF wants to see how you are building and deepening audience relationships, not just selling tickets. Show your audience development strategy — who are your current audiences, who are your target audiences, and how will you engage them beyond the performance itself. Funded models include community engagement programs, artist-audience dialogues, digital engagement, and audience research. Organizational resilience: DDCF funds capacity building that strengthens organizations' long-term sustainability. If your proposal is for a single production, it is less competitive than one that builds organizational capacity…