239 charities to take part in first Big Give arts campaign
Melanie May | 21 February 2024 | News
Big Give is running its first arts-focused matched funding campaign next month, with 239 charities taking part.
The Arts for Impact campaign covers music, theatre, dance, visual arts, museums, galleries, art and literature, and aims to raise £2.5 million. Match funding of £1.25mn has already been pledged. It will take place from 19-26 March in partnership with New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture (NPAC).
Big Give received 346 charity applications; of those, 331 met the campaign’s eligibility criteria. Each charity selected has arts and culture as their core mission and is considered to be making a transformational societal impact on the lives of the people engaging with them. 159 (or 66%) of the charities participating have an income of £1mn or less. 76% of funding is going to charity projects working in regions outside of London.
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Participating charities include Arts 4 Dementia, Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust, Music in the Round, Taking Flight Theatre Company, and Watts Gallery Trust.
Big Give’s champion donors for this campaign include The Reed Foundation, Arts Council England (via Stoke Creates), West Midlands Combined Authority and many generous individual philanthropists.
Alex Day, Managing Director of Big Give, said:
“This is the first time we have run a campaign focused solely on the arts, and I am thrilled by the level of interest it has already received from charities and our match funding partners. NPAC has been invaluable in getting this off the ground, and I am sure the campaign will be a success, as has been the case with our other dedicated environmental and female-focused campaigns.”
Working with Big Give, NPAC has been helping to secure match funding and is supporting arts organisations in preparing and running their campaigns, with a specific focus on generating place-based philanthropic support. Big Give is also providing marketing resources, webinars and support to charities to help them get the most from the week.
Sir Vernon Ellis, Chair of NPAC, said:
“We’re delighted to be supporting so many charities taking part in this new arts campaign. The arts and culture sector has long had a significant role to play within the fabric of our society, and it’s great to know that the campaign will benefit such a broad range of organisations up and down the country as well as increase awareness of the significant impact arts organisations can make in their local communities.”
Tonya Nelson, Executive Director, Enterprise and Innovation, Arts Council England, commented:
“This wonderful initiative will enable new partnerships and income for smaller arts and cultural organisations. We are excited to see how the campaign inspires individuals to donate, powered by the incentive of doubling their donations through the support of Big Give.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.