Recipients of £56m grants to boost philanthropy in the arts announced

21 Jun 2012 News

The 34 arts and heritage groups in England to share £56m of Catalyst Endowment programme match funding in order to boost philanthropic giving have been announced.

Power of Making Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The 34 arts and heritage groups in England to share £56m of Catalyst Endowment programme match funding in order to boost philanthropic giving have been announced.

The funding, awarded in advance of the organisations reaching their match-funding targets is expected to encourage a further £106m in gifts from private and corporate donors which can be used to contribute to annual running costs.

Arts Council England has awarded £30.5m in the programme to 18 organisations while the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £25.5m to 16.

The programme is being overseen by the Department for Culture Media and Sports and is one of three grant programmes being launched in order to increase philanthropy in the arts through the partnership. Last month the 173 successful applicants to the £30m Catalyst Arts capacity-building and match-funding scheme were announced and a £7m Catalyst programme for arts organisations with limited fundraising experience will be opened in autumn 2012.

Strengthening the future of the arts

Organisations receiving awards of between £500,000 and £5m through the Catalyst Endowment programme were selected by a panel chaired by former politician Michael Portillo and will use the funding to attract new money from philanthropists.

"The advisory panel was impressed with the calibre of the applications we saw," said Portillo. "I believe those we recommended for approval are well-placed to secure match funding from donors, and to build endowment which should strengthen their future financial resilience."

Three organisations were successful in receiving the largest grants of £5m: The Old Vic Theatre Trust, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V&A). The V&A funding is being used to support its ambition to raise £100m in endowment funding over the next 15 to 20 years to support its core scholarly activities.

The majority (19 organisations) received £1m while four organisations received £500,000, four received £2m and a further four received £3m.

The full list of recipients is available here.

Responding to the awards announcement Hannah Terrey, head of policy at the Charities Aid Foundation, said:

“In these tough times it is good news that the government is working with donors to support the great cultural life of the nation.

“Matching donations is a highly effective way of encouraging people to give and ministers are right to look at ways to build a culture of philanthropy to help support the causes we all care about."

The Heritage Lottery Fund yesterday also announced two Catalyst Endowment awards in devolved nations. The Linen Hall Library in Northern Ireland and the Abbotshall Trust in Scotland will each receive £1m.