Arts Council England announces new annual philanthropy conference to encourage culture of giving

Howard Lake | 20 September 2013 | Newswire

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Arts Council England

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In a speech given tomorrow (Friday 20 September) at the UK Community Foundations Conference, Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair of Arts Council England, will highlight the vital need for the arts and culture sector to encourage philanthropic support and to better communicate the benefits of arts and culture to the general public.

Sir Peter Bazalgette will say that there is major challenge to the sector to show the public how deeply embedded the arts are in their daily lives, and how vital they are to every aspect of communities across the nation.

He will go on to say: “There’s no doubt the arts has a great opportunity. Although charitable giving has declined in the last five years we’re still a generous country, eighth in the list of givers worldwide. But according to the Charities Aid Foundation only around one per cent of the pot goes to the arts. So there’s something for us all to aim for, particularly the so-called ‘baby boomers’. We’re the generation in our fifties, sixties and seventies. We’ve benefitted from four decades of house price inflation; we were the last to enjoy final salary pensions or uncapped personal pension contributions.”

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He will announce plans for an annual initiative to bring together the legal and accountancy professions with charity and investment advisers, business CSR leaders and the CEO’s of Community Foundations to discuss the challenges around securing increased philanthropic and corporate giving.

Key points include:

Research from The Charities Aid Foundation shows that more than £9 billion was given to charity in 2011-2012.

A recent YouGov poll showed that only 9% of people thought that public arts funding went to charitable organisations yet nearly all Arts Council England funding is given to organisations with charitable status.
The average donor is less inclined to give to the arts and more likely to give to education, homelessness and older people; issues that arts organisations routinely work to tackle in communities.

Partnerships with organisations such as the UK Communities Foundation will support this need, as will better communication around the tax system or initiatives such as the Cultural Gift Scheme.

Corporate giving has not risen to pre-recession levels.

Local businesses are supporters-in-waiting if the sector can find a way to address their priorities.
Arts Council England is taking the lead in helping arts organisations to find ways of approaching a mixed funding model.
In particular the Catalyst programme, including the Catalyst Endowment Fund, which match funds private money raised by organisations and last year helped towards a target of £106 million in donations.

The Arts Council also recognises the need to improve the fundraising skills of our workforce; we are committing £30 million to help 173 organisations strengthen this capacity and have invested £2 million in a new fellowship in fundraising at Leeds University.

A full copy of the embargoed speech will be available from the Arts Council England press office.

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Notes to Editors

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. We support a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections.

Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2010 and 2015, we will invest £1.9 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1.1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.

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.