Dive Brief:

• California College of the Arts has landed nearly $45 million in donations to help keep the struggling private institution afloat and fund turnaround efforts, it announced earlier this month. 
•  Anchoring the fundraising push was a $22.5 million matching gift from the charitable fund of Jen-Hsun Huang, the billionaire founder of Taiwanese technology company Nvidia, and his wife, Lori. The college’s trustees as well as former trustees, alumni and others contributed as well, the institution said.
• The donations will provide bridge funding into the next fiscal year, help CCA address its deficit, and “position the college both to continue its strong fundraising work and pursue its path to long-term sustainability,” it said.   

Dive Insight:

Going into 2025, CCA faced an uncertain fiscal future. 

In September, the arts college announced it had laid off 23 employees, or 10% of its staff, while also cutting open roles that made up another nearly 5%. 

Those efforts aimed to address what was then a $20 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year. In addition to layoffs, CCA said then it was also reviewing its academic portfolio, undertaking a new strategic enrollment plan and fundraising as part of its efforts to rein in its deficit. 

Local media reports raised the possibility last year that the San Francisco-based CCA — the last private arts institution in the city after the San Francisco Art Institute closed in 2022 — could close or merge with another institution. 

Founded in 1907, CCA has suffered enrollment declines like those experienced by many of its private college peers. Between 2018 and 2023, fall headcount declined 26.1% to 1,333 students.

Even so, CCA has recently expanded its campus, with a new 82,000-plus-square-foot building, which opened in fall 2024 and brought the college’s academic programs and student living together on a single campus. CCA funded the expansion, combined with increased student and faculty support and more community partnerships, with a $123 million fundraising campaign. 

CCA is not alone among struggling private arts colleges. Last year saw the sudden, shocking closure of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, which left a deep hole in the city’s arts life. The Delaware College of Art and Design also shuttered last year, while the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts announced it would end its graduate and undergraduate degree programs.

CCA has avoided a similar grim fate, at least for now, with gifts from more than 50 donors and the Huangs’ matching gift. 

“This extraordinary milestone demonstrates the vital role CCA plays in nurturing creative talent and innovation,” CCA President David Howse said in a statement. 

Howse added that the new pot of donor funds does “more than safeguard us against our structural deficit — it allows us to build on the great strengths of this college, providing us with opportunities to grow, launch new programs, and deepen our impact on San Francisco's art and cultural ecosystem.”