Reacting to Jeremy Hunt’s speech, Lord Myners asserted that “fine words butter no parsnips". Perhaps a better culinary aphorism would be that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating". The success of these (and any other) action points depends on the detail and a good pudding recipe can be rendered inedible by an inexpert cook!

Arts Council England (ACE) has announced that it will cut regular funding to Arts & Business and will take direct responsibility for promoting arts fundraising and I am greatly encouraged that ACE is consulting widely. Also that they refer approvingly to Theresa Lloyd’s book Cultural Giving and Professor Thomas’s report on fundraising for universities; in particular, they quote the Thomas report’s best-known conclusion: US fundraising works not because they have a culture of giving but a culture of asking.

Moreover, there seems to be a clear understanding that this culture of fundraising needs to permeate an organisation from top to bottom. This is an excellent starting position and the end of the fixed relationship with Arts&Business frees ACE to work with a variety of partners and test a range of initiatives. I am optimistic.

Capacity building must include boards as well as staff and must be strategic. The concept of capacity must include business planning, investment management and leadership as well as professional training. Perhaps the matched funding money outlined by DCMS and ACE could be contingent on recipients putting in place changes to their business planning and processes, especially around fundraising?

Training is essential but must be part of a long-term professional development (not just occasional workshops) and can only be as good as those delivering it.

When considering from where funding will come, fundraising from audiences is a must but the assumption that this means a ‘friends’ scheme is wrong-headed – there are many simpler and more effective alternatives. Think ‘donors’ not ‘friends’!

Crowd-sourcing is a buzz word, but it raises very little money and is not appropriate for established arts organisations. While innovation in fundraising is essential, few UK arts organisations even do the basics well. Sad to say, it is the boring stuff which makes the money (I may christen this ‘Dixon’s Law’!). Legacies, perhaps the most boring fundraising of all, are potentially the golden goose for the arts and this is where ACE should lay a lot of emphasis (see Legacy giving: Golden goose or lame duck?)

The £80m match-funding scheme suggested is good, although the pot is not large and steps must be taken to ensure it isn’t scooped by the large London organisations.

The new strategy suggests encouraging the creation of endowment funds: I believe that talk of endowments is very dangerous; only a handful of the largest organisations should consider endowment fundraising, especially in these difficult funding times.

UK charities are very professional in their fundraising (in some cases better than in the USA) and it can only be good for the arts to recognise they are part of the UK charity fundraising sector and not a special case – fundraising is fundraising!

Arts organisations are very short of capital and are facing serious cuts in revenue funding. This will make it very difficult to invest more in fundraising. Personally I would like to see ACE establish a revolving loan fund (probably with partners) for investment in income-generating initiatives in the arts. Perhaps that could be action point number 11?

David Dixon
David Dixon was a senior fundraising manager at Oxfam before joining the Oxford Playhouse Theatre as Development Director in 1991. At the Playhouse he pioneered fundraising techniques which were new to the cultural sector and in 1993 he set up David Dixon Associates to bring these techniques to the wider cultural and heritage sector in the UK, and later in other European countries.
In 1997 Dixon established The Phone Room (www.phoneroom.co.uk), a specialist telephone fundraising agency of which he remains the chairman and in 2010 launched Voice (www.nfpvoice.com) which specialises in social media.

David Dixon Associates
Tel: +44 77990 66304
Website: www.ddassociates.co.uk