About CultureCount: New England’s Cultural Database

WHAT IS CultureCount?

ABOUT THE DATA

BACKGROUND

CITING CultureCount

CultureCount IMPACT CALCULATOR (Massachusetts pilot)

PARTNERS AND FUNDERS

DATA PROVIDERS

WHAT IS CultureCount?

New England’s cultural database, developed by New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA).
An online data warehouse containing financial, demographic, geographic, and other information about cultural nonprofits, businesses, and professionals in New England.
Provides the New England state arts agencies, researchers, cultural organizations, funders, artists, policy makers, and general public with a wealth of research information to support analysis, advocacy, and policy development.
A geographically coded directory to allow searches by location and support a variety of analyses based on geographic area.
Uses a system of tiered admittance providing varying levels of access to the information contained in the database, from free use by the general public and registered users, to data and product subscribers and partners with custom economic impact tools.
Expanding as for-profit creative industry businesses are added to the present listings of nonprofit cultural organizations and individual artists to encompass the entire creative economy of New England.
Includes an Impact Calculator, an interactive cultural economic impact analysis tool that demonstrates the economic impact of the nonprofit cultural sector and then estimates how changes in the sector affect a community or region’s employment, income, and property values.
Integrates with NEFA grantmaking as the vehicle for creating, processing, and tracking NEFA online grant applications and forms.
Currently houses 30,019 active records.

ABOUT THE DATA

CultureCount provides useful data you can trust. The online database collects and matches financial and descriptive data from:

federal, state and local arts agencies
IRS digitized Form 990 data
public agencies
private funders
annual NEFA regional survey of nonprofit cultural organizations

Directory listings are compiled and vetted by NEFA. Organizations are matched by tax ID number and coded by funders or the IRS. Listings are then cross-coded according to standard federal classification systems and NEFA’s creative economy definition categories.

Directory listings represent:

Organizations surveyed by NEFA
Organizations that have filed IRS Form 990
Organizations that have received grants from NEFA
Organizations that have received grants from the six New England state arts agencies
Organizations that have received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
Organizations that have added themselves to the database
Individuals who have added themselves to the database
Individuals imported from MatchBook.org

CultureCount shares data with MatchBook.org, an online cultural marketplace designed to bring together New England’s performing artists and the people and organizations who present them.

Financial data: Most recent digitized IRS Form 990
Grants data: Grants databases of public funders listed (SAA’s, NEA, NEFA)
Geographic data: Most recent U.S. Census

BACKGROUND

NEFA's past research into the economic impact of cultural organizations, and role as research partner on New England's Creative Economy Council led to the conceptualization and creation of the New England Cultural Database (NECD). Now called CultureCount, this online database is the only comprehensive and consistent data collection resource for New England's creative economy. Senior NEFA Research Consultant Douglas DeNatale, president of Community Logic, Inc. developed and built CultureCount. CultureCount complements the research activities at NEFA by providing a centralized location for the collection of local creative economy data for New England. This local data supplements the federal data analyzed by NEFA in research reports on the creative sector and fits within the creative economy definitional structure outlined in The Creative Economy: A New Definition, 2007.

CITING CultureCount

When referring to information derived from CultureCount, the following copyright notice must appear in all copies: "Copyright © 2008 New England Foundation for the Arts/CultureCount www.culturecount.org.”

The text and graphic designs contained in this website may not be modified in any way. Images contained in this site are not to be downloaded or otherwise reproduced without direct permission of the owner or copyright holder.

The data archived by CultureCount is made available for non-commercial purposes only. Please review our Terms and Conditions of Use for detailed information regarding NEFA's policies on data use.

Permission to reproduce text for commercial use must be obtained from NEFA in writing prior to reproduction. All requests should be directed to research@nefa.org.

CultureCount IMPACT CALCULATOR (Piloted in Massachusetts)

The Impact Calculator is the interactive cultural economic impact analysis tool built right into CultureCount. It demonstrates the economic impact of the nonprofit cultural sector and then estimates how changes in the sector affect a community or region’s employment, income, and property values. Using property tax information combined with IRS and other data from a sample group of communities, creative industry leaders, community members, and policy makers can use this analysis tool to help advocate for investments in community cultural assets. If you would like to attend a CultureCount Impact Calculator training workshop, please email culturecount@nefa.org.

PARTNERS AND FUNDERS

New England Foundation for the Arts
Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism
Maine Arts Commission
Massachusetts Cultural Council
New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Vermont Arts Council
Community Logic, Inc.
MASS MoCA/Williams College Center for Creative Community Development (C3D)
The Boston Foundation
Fidelity Foundation
The Davis Family Foundation
The Cabot Family Charitable Trust

DATA PROVIDERS

New England Foundation for the Arts
Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism
Maine Arts Commission
Massachusetts Cultural Council
New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Vermont Arts Council
National Center for Charitable Statistics
National Endowment for the Arts
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Maine Humanities Council
Maine State Archives

For more information about CultureCount: New England’s Cultural Database, please email culturecount@nefa.org.