Sector pushed closer to a private funding culture

The development of a national fundraising development programme will be at the heart of a new £2m funding initiative by Arts Council England (ACE), which is inviting bids to run a scheme that will “support activity which aims to professionalise arts sector fundraising across England while improving perceptions of the arts as a charitable cause among potential and existing donors.”
Funding for the development of the programme will come from the £100m Catalyst Arts scheme (see AP238) to complement other income generation initiatives, and its ultimate purpose is to ensure more income is generated for the arts from private giving and businesses by developing the skills of individuals and organisations to fundraise from the private sector. ACE intends that the programme will persuade arts organisations to “develop an enterprising culture in which fundraising is placed at the heart of [their] business model and ethos, enabling [them] to better integrate their fundraising work with their artistic ambitions and their audience development activity.” The development programme will aim to meet the needs of leaders in all types of arts and cultural organisations, whether ACE-funded or not, including museums and libraries as well as the arts.

The announcement of the national fundraising development programme has coincided with the opening of a £7m fund aimed at enabling arts organisations with “an underdeveloped fundraising model” to build their long-term fundraising capacity and improve their resilience. The scheme is open only to consortia of organisations, which can apply for grants of between £60,000 and £150,000, but organisations are being encouraged to form larger consortia by restricting grants to £80,000 for consortia with only two members. ACE has set up a social networking site to help organisations find partners to work with.ACE’s latest funding stream will provide professional development for fundraising and capacity-building support for arts consortia.