Billings Studio Theatre and Moss Mansion make a compelling case for arts support as civic infrastructure. One runs on 40,000 annual volunteer hours; the other opens a historic home to roughly 10,500 tour-goers and more than 1,500 students each year.

The Billings Public Library Foundation turns private giving into four after-hours locker sites, mobile Wi-Fi, makerspace tools, and early-literacy support. That is a much more useful picture of library philanthropy than a warm-and-fuzzy stack of novels.