Catalyst for philanthropy

Forty million pounds of Lottery money is to be made available to help arts organisations encourage philanthropic giving through Arts Council England’s (ACE) new Catalyst Arts fund. The fund will have three strands, the first being a £30m pot to be invested in “an integrated match-funding and capacity building scheme” which aims to increase arts organisations’ ability to fundraise. Details of how the scheme will work have yet to be confirmed. An ACE spokesperson told AP that it will be open to all arts organisations regardless of NPO status, but said: “we anticipate that organisations wanting to apply for a three-year award will need to speak to their regional Arts Council office for advice before making an application”.

This fund will offer tailored awards that cover a three-year period and will be open to organisations with experience of fundraising, either individually or in collaboration with others. ACE said: “most arts organisations above a certain size will have some experience [of fundraising], but the degree of this, and their capacity to fundraise on a regular basis in a sustainable way, varies widely. The £30m fund is designed to help organisations who know the basics, but need to build their skills and capacity for fundraising, to enable them to make a step change in their fundraising capabilities.” Each grant will be split into two parts: organisations will be expected to spend the first year capacity-building and preparing, before using the remaining two years of funds to explore “ways of using match-funding to generate and secure new private giving”. ACE anticipates that this £30m will enable arts organisations to generate around £25m of new money from private giving by 2015, and organisations will be expected to share their findings – good and bad – with others as a condition of the funding. The exact details of how much organisations will be expected to raise in order to receive the match-funding are yet to be finalised.

The second tranche of funding is £7m for a one-off grant scheme to support arts organisations with less experience of fundraising, to help them build their fundraising capacity. These awards will range from £15,000-£25,000, with the aim of providing organisations with the skills they need to begin to raise or increase their private income. ACE told AP: “The £7m fund is aimed at organisations – probably smaller – which have little or no fundraising track record. That may be because they are too small or new to have anyone on their team with the necessary skills, or time to undertake fundraising activities.” The third strand, worth £3m, will be invested in giving practical advice on how to secure new sources of funding, including sharing the knowledge gained from Catalyst Arts with the wider sector. ACE has yet to finalise its application criteria and procedures for accessing the funding: details will be available in the autumn. Further initiatives which will form part of the DCMS’s £80m scheme to boost private giving to the arts, of which this is part, will be announced soon.

Alan Davey, Chief Executive of ACE said: “We wanted [this scheme] to be different from match-funding that has gone before. We said we wanted it to enhance – and not simply replace – existing gifts, and that it should work for arts organisations of all shapes and sizes, even those who have little experience of fundraising.” Catalyst’s awards will consequently “be tailored to individual organisations allowing them to be creative in the way they use the match funding to generate new private giving and build long-term resilience.”

Private giving is just one area where ACE is looking to invest its strategic Lottery funds in future. An announcement has already been made about a new Lottery-funded digital innovation programme (AP238), and strategies for capital development, touring, audience development, leadership and organisational development, children and young people and talent development are yet to be announced. For capital, a budget of £200m over six years up to 2016/17 has already been approved, with priority given to investments to improve existing arts facilities and assets. The capital fund will be open to all, but investment is “likely to be mostly into National Portfolio Organisations”