The role of giving to culture in 2020
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Each year, Giving Tuesday is a time when charities all over the world advocate for the value of philanthropy and encourage people to give to the causes that matter to them, including art and culture. As we approach this year’s event, and enter into a season traditionally associated with acts of giving, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be generous.
Of course, this year’s Giving Tuesday takes place in very different circumstances to those that came before. 2020 has probably been the strangest year most of us have ever known. For some, it has also been a time of real hardship, with many people facing job losses and extreme financial shocks.
However, despite the challenges this year has brought, we’ve seen so much generosity across the cultural sector, with artists and organisations going above and beyond to continue serving their communities, and audience members doing what they can to support the organisations that matter to them.
Philanthropy will never be a replacement for public investment in culture, and the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund has been essential for helping many organisations to stay afloat throughout the pandemic. However, there is no denying the impact of philanthropy in helping to make that little bit extra possible.
The many faces of philanthropy
Giving takes many forms, and there are several ways individuals can help. It can be the really useful piece of pro bono advice, a shift as a volunteer, or some coins in a donation box (or perhaps more likely a cheeky contactless payment this year), as well as a magnanimous gift towards a capital development or significant programme. We saw many fantastic examples of public generosity towards the arts when the pandemic first began, with people choosing to donate the cost of tickets to cancelled productions, or maintaining memberships despite the necessary venue closures.
Corporate donations have also played an important role in supporting the sector, with Netflix, for example, contributing £500,000 to the Theatre Artists Fund set up by director Sam Mendes. We have also seen dedicated funds set up by trusts and foundations, including the Live Work Fund established by the Wolfson Foundation, Jerwood Arts, the Esmée Fairburn Foundation and the Linbury Trust, alongside the lifelines offered to the sector by the Weston Culture Fund and the Respond and Reimagine grants from Art Fund. At the Arts Council, we are proud to have donated £6 million to eight benevolent funds working directly to support artists, performers and other cultural sector freelancers through the hardships caused by Covid-19.
Innovative fundraising
Cultural organisations have also worked hard to develop new ways of fundraising to reach audiences at home, and account for the challenges facing them.
Digital events have been popular and have allowed many organisations to raise significant extra income. Northern Ballet’s “pay as you feel” season, for example, allowed audiences to access online work at a price of their choosing, while Jazz re:freshed took their annual Jazz Re:Fest event online, encouraging audience members to donate or buy t-shirts.
Other innovative initiatives have included the Empty Seats campaign by Manchester’s HOME, which highlighted the cost of social distancing to venues. Some organisations have taken lockdown as a chance to grow their online presence, with organisations such as Tank Museum working to channel online engagement towards their gift shop and Patreon account, and the Hepworth Wakefield holding a digital version of their annual Christmas fair. The Association for Cultural Enterprises is running Museum Shop Sunday as a way to help museums develop their digital businesses and make up for lost revenue, while Cause4 is running a Giving Tuesday competition to encourage fundraisers to share innovative ideas for how organisations can increase philanthropic revenue.
This entire mix of approaches – from individuals, businesses, Government, charities, and cultural organisations themselves – has helped secure a brighter future for the sector. We welcome all of them, and thank everyone who has already given so generously to the cultural organisations that matter to them this year.
Small gestures at scale make a big impact, so why not have a think this Giving Tuesday about the little things you can do to help. This year I’m going to attempt to fill my children’s stockings with gifts purchased online from arts and cultural sector gift shops. It’s going to be a more pleasurable experience for me and I’m going to enjoy the warm glow that comes from knowing my purchase will somehow, somewhere make a difference.
