The Stage

Jeremy Hunt announces £80m fund to encourage philanthropists

Published Wednesday 8 December 2010 at 15:47 by Natalie Woolman

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced plans for an £80 million match funding scheme to encourage philanthropy in the arts today.

Hunt said that the money, which will be provided from the National Lottery by Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, would fund a series of match fund initiatives catering to three tiers of organisations.

Smaller organisations will be supported to develop their fundraising capacities and to identify potential donors, larger regional organisations are to use the fund to incentivise donors to be more generous, and the UK’s most established organisations will be encouraged to set up endowment funds with the money.

Hunt said: “Above all, we are targeting a horizon shift: a generational change in the culture of giving that may be ten or 20 years in the making.

“Not just more giving, but more effective giving, more planned giving, and more long-term relationships between the arts and their supporters. The sooner we start, the sooner we will get there.”

The match funding pot is part of a ten-point action plan designed to boost philanthropy in the UK. It also includes a government review into the subject, to be published in spring 2011, increasing donations from international givers and designating 2011 as the Year of Corporate Philanthropy.

However, shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis has hit out at the plans. He said: “Labour welcomes any credible strategy which seeks to increase philanthropic and corporate investment in the arts, including the concept of matched funding. However, today’s announcement is all spin and no substance. There is little or no new money and a clear absence of Treasury support. 2011 will be the year of cuts, not the year of philanthropy.

“These proposals will do nothing to protect arts organisations from the disproportionate cuts they face over the next few years and fail to address the crisis facing the regions. Jeremy Hunt himself admitted that he will be a grandpa before the measures take effect, but in the real world his cuts are hitting now and will cause long term damage.”

Meanwhile, Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, which will receive no government subsidy beyond 2012, raised concerns about how the proposals would be put into practice. Speaking to The Stage, he said: “I think it is a great idea, I don’t know how any of it will be achieved.

“Virtually every word which was said was in our private sector policy. We are thrilled that people are now doing this but the challenge is, who is going to do the work? We were paid to do the work, we are no longer being asked to do the work, so who is going to do it?”

The £80 million match fund will be provided with £30 million from DCMS using their departmental budget over four years starting in 2011/12 and up to £50 million of Lottery funding from ACE over five years from 2011/12.

DCMS also published reports by ACE chief executive Alan Davey and British Museum director Neil MacGregor on how to increase endowments today.