Evolving philanthropy
Posted by:
The term “philanthropy” is often associated with large donations by high-net worth individuals, but as Covid-19 has shown us, we all have the capacity for the generosity and community spirit that the word embodies. Stories of people going the extra mile for others have continually graced the front pages throughout lockdown, from local volunteers helping their neighbours, to the heart-warming campaign of Captain Sir Tom Moore.
Philanthropic support, large-scale and small, is an essential part of how many cultural organisations fund their work. Early reports suggest that levels of charitable giving have remained steady throughout the pandemic, but we know that many people are rethinking how they donate and who they give their money to. Working from home over the past five months has meant I’ve been in a fortunate position to increase my support, using money saved on my commute, for organisations that have shown how they are helping people disproportionately affected by the crisis in my local community like Travelling Light.
Fundraisers have been quick to adapt to this new environment, and we’ve seen a boom in crowdfunding, as well as initiatives such as the Artist Support Pledge on social media. It’s clear that organisations will need to continue to adapt their fundraising strategies to the new preferences and giving patterns of potential donors as we move beyond the lockdown.
So what is the Arts Council doing to help? In recent years we’ve invested in a number of programmes designed to help organisations make the most of philanthropy, and I believe we’ve learned a number of lessons that can help fundraisers looking to adapt their work to the circumstances brought about by Covid-19.
Today we’re publishing the evaluation of one of those programmes, Catalyst: Evolve. With a focus on helping small cultural organisations to invest in their fundraising skills, Catalyst: Evolve helped 160 organisations to raise over £11million, which was matched by Arts Council investment between July 2016 and August 2019. The programme focussed on issues such as how to help staff become comfortable asking for charitable donations, and how to get boards more closely involved with fundraising, helping organisations to use their existing resources more effectively as well as investing in new initiatives.
As I mentioned earlier, another key part of successful fundraising is understanding the behaviour of donors, and what motivates them to give. Decision science is a well-established field, having been used in advertising, marketing and retail for decades to help businesses understand what influences consumers to act in a particular way. In recent years it has become more prevalent in the charity sector, as organisations have sought to better understand how to elicit an emotional response that drives a person to donate.
We want to help cultural organisations to make the most of developments in this field, and have invested in a project by Management Centre to find out how the principles of decision science apply to philanthropy in the cultural sector. Working with ten organisations, they conducted a series of experiments into what makes people donate. They concluded that there are a number of simple and effective strategies that can improve the chances of someone making a donation, which you can read about here.
As well as investing in skills development and new ways of fundraising, we need to increase the overall amount of money being donated to charity in the UK. This is the principle behind our work with Beacon Collaborative, a partnership that aims to get wealthy individuals in the UK to donate at least an additional £2 billion a year to the wider charitable sector. Earlier this year, the Collaborative published three reports, containing research that we hope will provide organisations with information to reflect on and consider when they need to create more effective approaches to fundraising.
Effective and efficient fundraising will be essential in the aftermath of Covid-19. I hope you find the knowledge gained through these programmes, and the help and training provided by our Sector Support Organisations, useful in creating fundraising strategies that help you to continue bringing your creativity to audiences across the country through the months and years ahead.
