78%
of boards discuss fundraising strategy sometimes, rarely, or never
Gain insight into the challenges and opportunities of fundraising, as perceived by the arts and cultural sector.
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Fostering Success in Fundraising captures the sentiments of those fundraising for the arts, with insight into the resources required to achieve fundraising success.
This research shows that securing the right skills and expertise was the main challenge facing arts and cultural organisations when seeking private sector support. The opportunity for board members to be more engaged with fundraising was identified, with only 25% of board members actively involved in fundraising activity. Fundraisers reported that seeking donations from individual donors was the most common fundraising activity and key to their success in raising private sector support.
Sentiment reporting captures the perception that COVID-19 negatively affected the capacity of arts and cultural organisations to undertake activities that raised private sector support and has consequently shifted the way they are thinking about their future. Importantly, COVID-19 adversely impacted perceptions on the amount of private sector support that organisation could expect to receive moving forward.
The impact of ongoing disruptions from COVID-19 pandemic had impact on these results. More organisations than not believed they could keep their supporters engaged with their work (74%) and that their supporters were aware that they needed the funds despite not being open or performing
54% of the organisations sampled agreed that their fundraising activities would be limited as long as COVID-19 restrictions remained in place. The potential impact of ongoing disruptions from COVID-19 led 56% of organisations to believe that there would not be any new avenues of private sector support opening up.
Fundraising activities will be limited if COVID restrictions remain in place
The main challenge organisations identified was a perceived lack of skills and expertise in seeking private sector funding, with 53% of organisations identifying with this issue. This aligns with greater awareness of the need for private sector support and the resulting opportunities they identify for more skilled staff, combined with a better understanding of this need within the organisation.
The organisation has difficulty finding staff with the right skills to drive fundraising
36% of organisations identified the need to develop their fundraising strategy and case for support within their organisation. Many organisations also stated they would have greater capacity to undertake their fundraising activities by having dedicated fundraising staff or volunteers (30%), as well as more skilled and experienced staff and volunteers (29%).
How successful is organisation at raising funds from the private sector
58% of organisations stated they did not have the resourced capability to be more successful, with 24% of organisations stating they have the resource capability in successful fundraising and 18% of organisations unsure of their resource capability.
How successful is organisation at raising funds from the private sector
The top two resources needed were funding for a dedicated staff member or fundraising activities (54%) and staff and volunteers who are dedicated to fundraising (53%).
The organisation has staff dedicated to fundraising
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Directly approaching individuals for donations was the most common fundraising activity (77%), a level of engagement that is relatively consistent with Giving Attitude 2018. The use of social media campaigns increased significantly to 64%, up from 49% from Giving Attitude 2018. Unsurprisingly, results on engagement with other key fundraising activities were likely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.
How successful have drectly approaching individuals to ask for donations been for organisation in raising private sector funds from individuals and businesses
Individual donations, undertaking entertainment events, and asking for business sponsorships were rated as being most successful across the industry and are now classified as moderately successful compared with a classification of low success in Giving Attitude 1.
How successful have crowd-funding campaigns been for organisation in raising private sector funds from individuals and businesses
The proportion of organisations that rated themselves as highly successful had declined for those seeking individual donations (33% to 24%), for entertainment events (25% to 18%), and in asking for business sponsorships (27% to 15%) and business donations (22% to 6%). High agreement with the importance of private sector funding significantly increased (from 46% to 54%).
How successful have crowd-funding campaigns been for organisation in raising private sector funds from individuals and businesses
Maintaining sponsors through the economic pressures of the pandemic was a concern for 43% of organisations.
Despite declines in the perceived success of some activities that raise private sector support, organisations surveyed remained clear in their understanding of the importance of private sector fundraising.
How important is private sector funding
Organisations’ perceptions on their government funding capability remained stronger overall. This was most apparent in the results on their perceived experience and success.
How important is government funding to the viability of organisation
The proportion of arts and cultural organisations that employed fundraising staff remained relatively consistent with Giving Attitude 1; 21% employed fundraising staff compared to 24%. Among those who did employ fundraising staff, there was a higher number of full-time equivalent fundraising staff.
Are organisation staff paid or unpaid
The sample shows a higher representation in Giving Attitude 1 (58%) of organisations where most of their employees are paid, compared to Giving Attitude 2018 (38%). This change is consistent with the anecdotal recruitment feedback that organisations were relying more on paid employees as volunteer numbers reduced due to COVID-19.
How many full time equivalent (FTE) fundraising staff do you employ?
Senior staff reported relatively low levels of board engagement, irrespective of organisation size. For example, 13% reported that board members donated frequently, while 32% did so once a year.
What percentage of board donates frequently (more than once a year)
Board engagement in fundraising was still an area for improvement with only 22% of boards only discussing fundraising strategies monthly.
of boards discuss fundraising strategy sometimes, rarely, or never
of boards discuss fundraising strategies monthly
A significant proportion of board members were not actively engaged in activities that raised private sector support. For example, board members were reported to be most frequently involved in discussing fundraising strategies (22% monthly and 31% every 6 months) while having participated less frequently in the actual activities (25% never do and 15% do so less than once a year).
How often does board get involved in direct approaches to individuals to ask for donations
Articulating a unique point of difference (52%) and the ability to build strong donor and supporter relationships (49%) continued to be the top two internal marketing and fundraising activities. Despite most identifying these areas as key challenges, these results indicate they had been attempting such activities.
The organisation is able to articulate its unique point of difference from other arts organisations
Explore and compare the data across Giving Attitude 1 and Giving Attitude 2.
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