This year, Americans for the Arts is honoring Jeff Hawthorne with the Michael Newton Award. For the past 25 years, the Michael Newton Award has recognized exemplary leadership skills and extraordinary dedication to supporting the arts through a united arts fund, which is a combined effort to raise money on behalf of multiple arts institutions in the community, or through unique and powerful partnerships with the private sector.

As director of community engagement for the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) in Portland, Oregon, Hawthorne collaborates with community partners to increase funding and visibility for the local arts community. He is responsible for securing public and private funding that makes up RACC’s annual budget, which has grown from $3.8 million in 2003 to $10.2 million in 2015. Hawthorne also oversees the organization’s outreach and communications efforts, and manages research projects that help quantify the value of the local arts community. 

In 2005, Hawthorne designed and implemented the first united arts fund in Oregon, Work for Art, which is now raising about $750,000 per year, primarily through workplace giving. From 2007 to 2009, Hawthorne helped facilitate extensive research and community dialogue for Act for Art, an action plan that he co-authored, which ultimately led to a new, voter-approved income tax in Portland: the Arts Education & Access Fund.

Hawthorne has an extensive arts fundraising background, including nine years at Portland Center Stage. He has also raised funds for The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Metro Regional Parks and Greenspaces, Project 180 in San Francisco, and is co-founder of one of Portland’s premiere fundraising events, The Red Dress Party. He graduated cum laude from the University of Portland with a B.A. in theater management, and currently serves on the board for the Northwest Regional Re-Entry Center and Oregon’s Cultural Advocacy Coalition.