Giving Attitude is designed to track trends over time, as well as provide arts organisations with reference points against which to measure their own achievements in attracting and maintaining private sector support.

The research gives us insights into how CEOs and fundraisers are thinking, feeling and behaving in relation to raising private sector support. It also offers arts and cultural organisations a guide to the most successful fundraising strategies and the ability to see how their fundraising income and costs compare with others.

It will assist with policy makers at all levels of government to understand what is required to be successful in fundraising, and what they can do to help build the fundraising capacity of the arts sector. Arts organisations can also see what is achievable and the return on investment they can expect when they invest time and resources into fundraising activities.

Participating organisations completed a questionnaire that reveals their activities and success with fundraising and their financial private sector support data.

The sample was recruited from a contact list of arts and cultural organisations provided by Creative Partnerships Australia. Creative Partnerships Australia determined this list through an identification of organisations that had Deductible Gift Recipient Receipt (DGR) status for the purpose of being an arts or cultural organisation at the time the list was created, where their primary purpose was arts or cultural activities.

By engaging a spread of arts and cultural organisations across Australia, this report was able to provide a true representation of this sector through key characteristics such as the organisation turnover, geographic location, and primary art form or cultural activity. The collected survey data was weighted to reflect the composition of arts and cultural organisations in the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission (ACNC) 2019 Annual Information Statement (AIS).

This iteration of the Giving Attitude survey collected the following data:

1. A profile of their organisation.
2. Fundraising activities, and their perceived capability and success with fundraising.
3. Fundraising challenges and opportunities.
4. Business data for their recent reporting period (Calendar 2019 or financial year 2019/2020):
   1. Total turnover (Earned income, government funding, private sector funding figures).
   2. Funding sources, including donors & supporters.
   3. Private sector funding figures (Cash and in-kind values for donations, fundraising,
      sponsorships, bequests).
   4. Volunteer hours.
   5. Associated costs.

A multi-mode recruitment approach was utilised across email, phone, and mail. Instinct and Reason recruited the sample from a contact list of arts and cultural organisations identified as having deductible gift recipient status. Each organisation was provided a unique online link for the survey to be completed. If a respondent preferred, they were able to complete the survey via phone or on a paper-based survey. This data was then entered into the online system.

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic occurred during the middle of the data collection period and must be kept in mind when considering the results of this report.

Qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of Giving Attitude participants in order to:

1. Pilot test the survey to understand how to:
   • Improve clarity of the overall survey while maintaining its trackability.
   • Improve the collection of financial data, as well as to provide definitions to improve understanding of the survey.
   • Improve data collection for cross art form categorisation, private donor definitions and board engagement.
   • Determine any barriers to completing the study.
2. Gather insights on the impact of COVID-19 and the economic recession on private sector support.

The interviews occurred between September 16 and October 6, 2020. They were 45 to 60-minutes in length, with 25 of the interviews were conducted via zoom and 5 via the phone. Instinct and Reason recruited participants from a list of nominees Creative Partnerships provided, which was based on organisations that participated in Giving Attitude 1.