Hunt’s punt on giving

An £80m fund will be made available to arts organisations to develop their endowments, legacies and donations, as part of new measures to support philanthropy in the arts. With £30m from the DCMS over four years, starting in 2011/12, and £50m of Lottery money from Arts Council England (ACE) over five years (also from 2011/12), the new fund will offer match-funding to arts organisations which develop their fundraising schemes.

The new funding scheme was announced by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, speaking at a philanthropy conference to “catalyse and facilitate individual and corporate giving by removing barriers, creating incentives”. Hunt’s plans draw heavily on the recommendations made in an ACE report into the potential for endowments, which was published on the same day. However, although ACE concludes that “we do not think that endowments should be the area of focus for arts organisations at the present time”, Hunt is “ready to make match-funding available to help support and incentivise donations” towards endowments.

In his speech, Hunt stated that “public funding of the arts will always continue”, and was clear that the plans do not offer either a ‘quick fix’ or a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to arts funding. He admitted that the next few years will be challenging, and that “smaller or more regional organisations may not be able to raise money in the same way or in the same quantities as major metropolitan institutions”. The new match-funding scheme will “be deployed in a range of ways to allow cultural organisations – large and small, London or regional – to access a scheme that suits them”. He said that “there is huge scope to strengthen private and corporate support for culture” and hoped that the new measures “will do a huge amount to bring about a long-term boost to giving”. Greater recognition for the generosity of individual philanthropists – including the recognition of donors through the Honours system – is being explored.

In order to encourage more investment by the business sector – which currently gives around £150m a year to the cultural sector – the DCMS has designated 2011 as the Year of Corporate Philanthropy. Hunt recognised that, for many businesses, the motivation for giving is about marketing and branding as well as being philanthropic. He praised the fundraising efforts of arts organisations across the country, and explained his plan to “develop a culture of ‘asking’ as well as ‘giving’”. He pointed to the necessity of developing fundraising skills and capacity to promote best practice and professionalise fundraising.

However, Hunt’s plan states that leveraging philanthropy is not just a concern of the arts, and reveals a wish to strengthen links between culture and other sectors which are supported by philanthropy. There is to be a cross-departmental review of giving, conducted by Tom Hughes-Hallett, Chief Executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care, which will report in the spring. The ACE report recommends that action to simplify Gift Aid and a review of the tax treatment of donors – especially for ‘planned giving vehicles’ and legacies – should both be on the list of issues for Government to address.