Gift of music campaign raises £41,000 for Britten Sinfonia
Howard Lake | 4 September 2014 | News
Britten Sinfonia’s Musically Gifted fundraising campaign has raised £41,000 in its first year. The orchestra is inviting people to make a donation or to buy a gift for someone which will fund a new music composition.
Donors can give from £10 to £1,000, in return for which they will receive one or more benefits. All donors will get their name included in the full score of the work being supported.
In addition, there is a sliding scale of benefits, similar to crowdfunding campaigns.
Donor benefits
There are six tiers of giving via Musically Gifted. Benefits for donors, or rather incentives to donors, are:
- £10 – a big thank you on Facebook and Twitter, a thank you/gift card, plus emails updating you on the evolution of the piece
- £50 – a copy of the front page of the score, signed by the composer
- £100 – a copy of the entire score, signed by the composer
- £250 – two complimentary tickets to the world premiere, and a private reception at the world premiere
- £500 – an invitation to attend the rehearsals of the chosen work
- £1000 – crediting as Principal Commissioner in the score and programme, and an invitation to afternoon tea with Britten Sinfonia players and the composer
There are also opportunities for those who wish to give more. For example, a donation of £5000 will open up exclusive benefits.
Will Harriss, Development Director at Britten Sinfonia, came up with the idea. Through its Catalyst scheme, Arts Council England is match-funding donations by individuals up to a total of £50,000 in the first year.
He described the campaign as “one of the few places you can buy some new music for someone else [at a price virtually anyone can afford]”. He acknowledged that it was similar to the virtual gifts catalogue such as OxfamUnwrapped and Archie the goat.
In the past, he explained, commissioning new music was the preserve of wealthy patrons. Now, Musically Gifted offered a more democratic approach, opening up this method of support for music composition to all music-lovers.
There was some concern that, by developing this new fundraising product, the chamber orchestra might cannibalise existing donation streams, but that does not appear to have happened. Indeed, many existing supporters who have given to the campaign have given substantially more than they had done in previous standard appeals. Others had come to concerts for years, but had not given to traditional fundraising asks, but have been inspired to give in response to this one.
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Results to date
In its first year, Musically Gifted has raised £41,000, including 14 £1,000 donations. The average gift has been £81, and 350 donors have made one or more gifts.
The campaign is extending Britten Sinfonia’s brand. Some donations in the £500 to £1000 range have come from people in cities around the world in which the orchestra has never performed. The orchestra is also learning more about the interests of their supporters, as donors choose which type of musical composition they would like to support, and which composer.
Harriss has noticed that the campaign is attracting slightly younger donors compared to previous fundraising appeals.
Artists themselves are getting behind the campaign, with some engaging well with donors on Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, the list of composers is evolving with new ones being added from time to time. Since some people have given to more than one composition, the orchestra is mailing donors with details of new compositions available for funding in the hope of a repeat gift.
Musically Gifted is not a crowd funding campaign, so there is no deadline or urgency to give.
You can listen to sample works from the composers whose work is available to support e.g.
A Tenner for a Tenor campaign
Musically Gifted has been built following the experiences of an earlier ‘fundraising product’ campaign. In 2010 the orchestra launched a nine-month campaign called ‘Tenner for a Tenor’. The aim was to raise funds for a commission from British composer Jonathan Dove for a chamber ensemble and solo tenor voice.
This was the orchestra’s first attempt at crowd funding. There was just one level of giving – £10, hence the name. Donations were accepted online, via text messages, and mail. Every donor would have their name listed on the full score.
The campaign used humour, with a picture of a sausage on the front of the leaflet, emphasising that they were asking for just “the same price as 4 lb of sausages”.
It raised over £3,000, excluding a substantial initial gift which helped them set up the campaign. The average gift was around £12.80. Over the 300 or so donors, 75% were new donors to the orchestra.
Harriss said that this pilot campaign “demonstrated an appetite amongst audiences to play a part in helping to create the music that they hear on stage, provided that the price is right”.
He added: “Having tested the principles of crowd-funding, it is now firmly embedded within the orchestra’s fundraising strategy, to the extent that over the coming 3-5 years a majority of Britten Sinfonia new music commissions are likely to be funded in whole or in part) this way”.
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.