Photos: Hester Qiang and (insert) John Schnobrich on Unsplash
This area of the site was written for very experienced trust fundraisers.
Fundraising for arts projects
Think creatively!
The number of trusts and statutory funders who support activity where the primary motivation is to commission a new piece of art is not huge. There’s Arts Council England (of course!) and a few others such as The Henry Moore Foundation and The Elephant Trust with a specific interest in supporting commissions. Even amongst those who are willing to support arts-focussed projects outright, there is an increasing emphasis on wider engagement and dissemination. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that by thinking creatively, you can identify where your project intersects with other priority areas and increase your pool of potential funders exponentially.
Key questions
Before you begin your prospect research, ask yourself the following questions:
Who is creating the artwork? Is the work being created by a single artist? Or in collaboration with a local community? Will they be from a specific group or background or location?
Where are they from? This is especially relevant if there will be input from a particular group or community. Where are they based? What is distinctive about this place? Are there any key socio-economic factors? Do they have a shared lived experience (of the justice system, homelessness etc.)? If the lead artist is from outside the UK, you might want to investigate international grant funders (see below).
Where will the artwork be shared? Again, the specifics of place are key. What is unique to the proposed location? Why should it be here and not somewhere else? Will it be shared somewhere else at a later date for more people to enjoy?
How, and for how long, will the artwork be shared? Is it a temporary installation that will only be displayed for the duration of, say, a festival? Is it a performance that will take place in a theatre or in a public square? Is the piece intended to be a permanent addition to the chosen location? Or perhaps the work is digital and can be shared worldwide?
Who will get to see it? Will it only be accessible to people who have paid to see it? Or can it be enjoyed by all? How many people do you estimate will see it in a week, a month or a year?
These answers will help you establish those other angles of support. Indeed, where a project is still in the earliest planning stages, it can be helpful to share these questions with the project organiser as it can help maximise an activity’s fundraising potential by building such key considerations in from the outset and in a way that doesn’t compromise the overall integrity of what your project is aiming to do.
The bottom line is to decide whether the resulting performance/artwork is simply a secondary outcome when compared with the social or educational value of your project albeit something that can act as a valuable post-project legacy.
For example, a project working with a group of young people results in a performance of spoken word poetry about tolerance and understanding. It uses creative writing and drama skills workshops as a tool to create the performance, but the primary project outcomes are community cohesion and developing a range of transferrable skills in participants such as team building, presentation skills and increased self-confidence.
Where to start?
Arts organisations are generally very public facing, so checking out the supporter pages on their websites is a great starting point for pulling together preliminary research lists; it’s also far less arduous than going through lots of charity accounts! Alternatively, you can take up the experienced arts fundraiser’s favourite hobby: taking photographs of donor boards in every venue they visit. Most have quite a collection.
Begin with organisations in the vicinity of where your project is due to take place as this may flag grant funders with a geographical interest in your area. Then look at organisations further afield who you feel have similar values and/or who deliver similar activity.
Time saving tip!
A good rule of thumb for any kind of grant funding research but an essential time saver when starting to interrogate your preliminary list of potential funders of an arts-focussed project – ALWAYS GO STRAIGHT TO THE EXCLUSIONS LIST as some grant funders exclude arts organisations and/or any kind of arts activity altogether however well your charity might otherwise fit.
There’s nothing more disheartening than doing a deep dive into funding guidelines thinking that your project sounds like it will be an excellent fit only to find out in the final paragraph that it’s out of the question.
There are others who won’t consider arts activity unless it is used as a means to deliver against a published funding priority; that’s where your key questions come in.
International grantmakers
If you are looking to exhibit work by an international artist, contact the Embassy of the artist’s home country to ask about any available cultural grants. Sometimes you will be directed to organisations dedicated to sharing their language and culture worldwide – very similar to the British Council – such as the Goethe-Institut, Alliance Française or Instituto Cervantes. At other times an Embassy may administer its own small grants scheme, often on a relatively ad hoc basis.
These funds rarely extend to huge sums but will cover the cost of artist travel & accommodation, artwork transportation and relevant insurance.
Partnership working
Cuts in available support in recent years means that arts organisations are increasingly turning to co-production as a means of developing new work. Many are growing networks of partner organisations to help deliver their community programmes too.
Think of how two or more theatre companies work together on a co-production. Partnership working brings a mix of skills and ensures that the final show reaches an audience in multiple towns or cities. Most importantly, in a world where box office income can never be guaranteed, it spreads financial risk by sharing high pre-production and rehearsal costs that can be too high for a single organisation to incur on its own.
Translate this to your sector and do and imagine how your project idea could be replicated elsewhere. Imagine how much more attractive it is as a funding proposition if you do.
Projects that engage with one or more partners can be very attractive to funders and provide a useful “in” where one or other of the partners already has a track-record of support from them. With the right introduction, this can effectively turn you into “warm” contact and increase your chances of success.
Developing a partnership is certainly no short-term option but one that can evolve into a mutually beneficial relationship, particularly where your project is already embedded in a community and able to reach specific audiences/participant groups that the arts organisation is keen to engage.
Don’t be put off by the idea that you might be representing a comparatively small organisation. Your ability to deliver in specific communities at a grassroots level might be just what your prospective partner needs, and this has a genuine value – imagine how much they would have to spend on a member of staff to make such in-roads. Be confident about holding your ground; seeking advice from colleagues at similar organisations in your sector or area can help with this.
“Audience” is more than just bums on seats
Reaching the widest possible audience adds weight to any application. But what does that mean in arts fundraising?
Of course, “audience” can refer to those who come to see a theatre show or visual art exhibition, but it’s not limited to that. Indeed, it should rarely be limited to that.
Will your project help to develop best practice or a pilot a new way or working that can be shared with other organisations? Deliver a seminar or webinar (or hybrid event) that will bring together a range of organisations who will benefit from what you have learned.
Will your project provoke conversations and debate around central themes that are relevant to your sector? Host a symposium at which these topics can be discussed and shared. Guests can include academics, local government representatives and don’t forget to invite a representative of the grant funder as a key speaker.
Will your project create a resource that can be shared by others? Perhaps this is something you design in advance to give to participants, or perhaps it’s designed by the project participants. Make it easily downloadable via your website, share with relevant agencies, whether schools, other charities etc.
Will your project result in case studies that can be filmed? If so, you have the possibility of an invaluable resource that can be used as content on social media channels and on your website.
One appropriately selected form of dissemination is far more effective than a scattergun approach. Simply find which format works best for your project and ensure that you build in the necessary costs to do it properly.