Our disagreement is about whether those risks can be dealt with, and outweighed by benefits. I think they can. In the past few years the very conditions under which we and our society operate have changed. For the Smithsonian, public funding is still available to support our core activities, but even the optimists among us know that we face a future of fewer public resources. Donations by individuals will always be crucial, but they are not enough to address our wide-ranging needs.
Foundations can never redress the balance of shrinking funds for the nonprofit sector.
So we in the nonprofit world find ourselves turning to corporate support more and more. The Smithsonian took its first step into the new realities in the summer of 1991, when it revised an earlier policy banning the display of corporate logos at the Smithsonian in recognition of support for exhibitions and other programs. The decision was left up to Smithsonian directors. The heart of the debate has to do with assessing both what the corporate sponsor gains and what we in the nonprofit world gain. Let's not be coy about it.