Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust awarded more than $2 million (June 2021) to 26 performing arts organizations. The grants will help strengthen performing arts organizations’ re-emergence following severe disruption caused by the pandemic and provide vitally important access.

Trust founder Virginia Galvin Piper believed arts and culture to be critically important for community health and vitality. As arts and culture organizations begin to re-imagine their futures beyond COVID-19, the Trust felt compelled to award grants to performing arts organizations and intentionally awarded grants to some organizations that serve youth/underserved youth and/or have Black, Indigenous, or People of Color-centered missions to help strengthen access to performing arts and culturally specific art forms.

At Piper Trust’s recent Board meeting, Trustees reflected on the virtues of Virginia Galvin Piper. Trustee Laura Grafman shared that over the life of the Trust, Trustees have never lost sight of the promise to Virginia to be “careful, creative, and compassionate” stewards of the philanthropic funds that Mrs. Piper graciously designated for Maricopa County nonprofits.

“We are focused on frequent conversations with our nonprofit partners to hear how their organizations, staffs, and the clients they serve are doing as we move into more encouraging times,” said Mary Jane Rynd, president and CEO of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. “Our Trustees remain on the pulse of how the pandemic is specifically affecting the various sectors within the nonprofit community and what we all need to do as we rebuild and reestablish.”

Since spring 2020 when the pandemic began, the Trust has awarded $31,458,000 in COVID response/related grants alone to arts and culture organizations, education and healthcare initiatives, and community support services. Piper Trust supported Maricopa County nonprofits with these unrestricted grants giving the organizations discretion and flexibility on the use of the funds. For many arts and culture organizations, that meant finding new ways to contribute to community health. At Chandler Center for the Arts, much of the pandemic lockdown was spent devising new ways to bring arts and culture to all, including through the presentation of virtual CCA Anywhere concerts, drive-in performances, and socially-distanced outdoor performances.

For more information on the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, visit pipertrust.org.