After 41 years of encouraging New Hampshire businesses to support the arts, the NHBCA is doing something unusual for a non-profit advocacy group: shutting down even though it doesn’t have to.

“We thought we can go out on top. We felt we had accomplished our mission, we could pay everybody, return any sponsorship money … no loose ends. It is a good time,” said Tom Raffio, who has been chair of the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts for a decade.

The group was founded 41 years ago “when businesses in New Hampshire weren’t as generous in supporting the arts. It was set up so we could be an advocate for promoting arts among business, fostering strong connections,” said Raffio, who is president & CEO of Northeast Delta Dental in his day job.

The driving force was Joan Goshgarian, who led the group for three decades before transitioning to Kimbal-Jenkins School of Art in Concord seven years ago. During that time the group funded and helped create a huge number of projects helping dance, theater, visual arts and music, with their highest-profile event being an annual gala in Manchester that honored people and businesses for generosity and ingenuity in supporting the arts.

But something interesting happened during that time, Raffio said: NHBCA became a victim of its own success. Once businesses were convinced of the importance of arts programs in New Hampshire they wanted to skip the middleman.

“Every year I’ve noticed it has been more and more difficult to raise funds for the gala, to get annual memberships. Often times an employer will say I’m already giving directly to the Capital Center, or wherever, so that’s where I want to put my funds,” he said.

When Goshgarian stepped down there was discussion among the board of directors whether the group should keep going but the decision was made that it still had a role to play. Tricia Soule was hired from the Currier Center for the Arts and took over as the only full-time paid employee, with a part-time assistant.

After six successful years, Soule announced recently that she would be moving on when the fiscal year ends in April to be director of development at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico. So the board looked again and came to a new conclusion.

One complication is that the decision to close down comes as state and federal government support for the arts is waning. State legislators have proposed removing all funding for the New Hampshire Council on the Arts while President Donald Trump’s slashing of federal budgets has taken back much of the money that Washington once distributed to arts organizations.

The board of directors of the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts is in the process of going through the complicated steps of winding up a non-profit under the New Hampshire Division of Charitable Trusts, ensuring that ongoing projects are completed and that excess funds are properly distributed. As of May 1, the organization will be no more.

“Our gala would have been in June. That’s my one disappointment, that we won’t be able to give a lot of performers the opportunity to present in front of a big audience,” Raffio said.

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.com.