An anonymous donor is giving $450,000 to provide three more years of arts funding to the Portland School District, bringing his total contributions to more than $1 million in seven years.

The money benefits a four-year-old program known as Culture Club, which aims to send each of the city’s roughly 7,000 students to attend programs at four participating arts institutions every year: The Portland Museum of Art, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Portland Ovations and Portland Stage Company.

This spring, school and arts organization leaders warned that the funding for the program – fueled by $650,000 from the donor to that point – would run out at the end of the school year. The identity of the donor, who lives in Portland, is not known to school leaders, according to Kate Snyder, a former school board member who is now executive director of the Portland Education Foundation, which coordinates the Culture Club-Portland program.

“This donor has given us an incredible investment in student experience,” Snyder said, adding that the money is routed through a third party to mask the donor’s identity. “We are really happy.”

The donor will provide $200,000 for the 2016-17 school year, $150,000 in 2017-18, and $100,000 in 2018-19, she said.

Snyder said the foundation and a new steering committee for Culture Club will focus on raising additional funds for the program. Small donations of $1,000 or less have been received in recent months, but no significant fundraising has taken place.

Officials say they hope to expand the program to fulfill the goal of sending each child to each of the art institutions every year, which will take better coordination and more resources.

Ongoing evaluations of Culture Club participation show that it has been more successful in some areas than others. For example, far more elementary school students participate than high school students, and more students overall attend Portland Ovations and Portland Stage events than the Portland Symphony Orchestra.

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