Culture Secretary's sleight of hand: what a performance

10 Dec 2010 Voices

Gordon Hunter has spied a trick in the philanthropy announcement by the Culture Secretary this week, but he's not fooled.

Gordon Hunter has spied a trick in the philanthropy announcement by the Culture Secretary this week, but he's not fooled.

I am distinctly underwhelmed by the Culture Secretary’s “plan” to build a new generation of philanthropists. 

Have I got this right? Is he withdrawing one year’s worth of grant aid and replacing it with two years worth of future promises? Instead of funding arts groups every year, is he ring-fencing just one year’s budget and asking the public to double it?

So, assuming we co-operate, we could eventually have, say, 60 County Arts Pots of £3m each. 

And that’s a good thing (so long as it has local ownership): permanent endowment, ideally awarded by local panels to local charities. But you need to understand the limitations.  £3m for Lincolnshire would generate something like £60,000 a year for local groups. Compare that to the £1.3m each year in grants that the endowment replaces. That’s a 96 per cent cut in funding every year, isn’t it?
 
Nor am I impressed with his Idiot’s Guide to building endowment: It is patronising (he seeks to “professionalise” fundraising), unrealistic (we should all leave 10 per cent of our estates to charity) and wishful (he recommends increasing gifts from UK business and overseas donors – how?).

Finally, please interpret this:
“(we will strengthen) links between culture and other sectors which are supported through philanthropy, such as charities, community groups or social enterprises.”  
I have no idea what this means.

Gordon Hunter is a champion of localism and director of the Lincolnshire Community Foundation