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Arts funding model needs 'rebooting' and 'rewiring', says Arts & Business

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 23 Mar 2010

In preparation for a predicted haemorrhaging of public funding to the arts, Arts & Business has launched a multi-pronged campaign to boost the sector’s capacity to attract private philanthropy.

The Private Sector Policy for the Arts, launched by the umbrella group today, puts match funding and major donors at the centre of plans to increase the resilience of arts organisations to predicted government cuts by increasing its voluntary income.

However, in its first recommendation, Arts & Business requires the cooperation of the government, as it calls for the reinstatement of the matching grant scheme – which it suggests could be funded by money from the Big Lottery Fund.

A match funding challenge fund is already on the cards, with Arts & Business lined up to join with Sir Alec Reed’s Big Give to create a £500,000 match fund pot for arts organisations. Details on the fund are expected within the next three months.

The building of legacy programmes is another major priority of the organisation, which aims to get 75 per cent of arts bodies which receive voluntary income to develop their own legacy programmes within the next year and a half. While the arts has long had a strong relationship with wealthy individuals, a 2008 study showed that few lifelong arts donors ever wrote an arts organisation into their wills.

The organisation is also looking to broaden the sectors from which it draws its wealthy supporters, in particular planning to cultivate ‘business champions’ who, it is hoped, will be able to encourage fellow members of the financial services sector to consider arts philanthropy when deciding how to spend their charitable pound.

Finally the organisation has set up a working party to investigate tax reforms, in particular the issues of relief on gifts of works of art, lifetime legacies and rules around substantial donors.

Chief executive of Arts & Business Colin Tweedy said there is an urgency in developing these measures. “Time is not on our side,” he said. “The healthy levels of public funding secured quality for the sector, allowing arts organisations to attract increasing visitor numbers (and earned income), which in turn has encouraged further private investment… This three-legged tripod mixed economy model is under threat. This policy is designed to reboot and rewrite it.”

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