Private support for the arts grows to record £530 million
Howard Lake | 11 December 2006 | News
Arts & Business reports that private support for the arts has grown to £530 million, a growth of twice the rate of inflation. The top 50 arts organisations, representing 3% of the 4,000 arts organisations surveyed, received taking the lion’s share of these donations.
According to the Arts & Business (‘A&B’) Private Investment in the Arts report, individual giving has grown the most, standing at £262.4 million. From 2004/05 business investment has remained static at £153.4 million, whilst donations from trusts and foundations have risen to over £113.7 million.
A&B says that its research is “the only survey in the world to annually produce these figures and report on both business investment and individual giving together”.
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Colin Tweedy, Chief Executive of A&B welcomed the findings, but said: “The challenge for A&B is to ensure that corporate giving does not lag behind other forms. Corporate giving is a key part of the private investment mix.”
The report revealed mixed results across the UK. London now accounts for 74% of all private donations, with seventeen of the top twenty recipients of private donations listed in the survey based in London. The South West, North East and East Midlands all saw an increase, whilst Yorkshire, the West Midlands and the East region experienced the biggest falls.
Heritage remains the most popular sector for support, followed by visual arts/galleries, museums and theatres. Together these sectors took 70% of total private investment.
Libraries and archives saw the greatest increase in UK share of private investment, with film/video also showing a strong increase. Cash sponsorship was dominated by theatre, visual arts and galleries and festivals, taking 41% of the total UK share of this form of investment. Museums and music took the largest share of corporate donations, receiving 43%.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.