Philanthropy is not a dirty word for museums
Private money is not a panacea but it is important as part of a mixed financial model
The forthcoming show of loaned artworks, organised by Museums Sheffield, will not just be remembered for Cyber-Iconic Man – a Jake and Dinos Chapman sculpture of a bloodied naked body that will hang upside down in Sheffield Cathedral’s Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
Going Public: International Art Collectors (16 September to 12 December) might also have a lasting impact on regional philanthropy. The show is spread across five Sheffield venues and includes artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Sarah Lucas and Maurizio Cattelan, as well as the Chapman brothers. The works have been lent by high-profile art collectors, including Nicolas Cattelain.
The purpose of the project is to create a “new model” for philanthropic giving in the UK, according to Kim Streets, the chief executive of Museums Sheffield. A summit event, taking place on 12 October, will bring international art figures together to debate the role of private philanthropy for the arts and culture sector
.
Contemporary art consultant Mark Doyle, who masterminded the project with postwar and contemporary art adviser Sebastien Montabonel, says that there is a worrying lack of critical debate over how the private sector can work with public art institutions, especially during a time of continued cuts in public funding for culture.
“We want to create a legacy in Sheffield,” Doyle says. “It’s about business leaders in the city understanding the benefit that culture can bring. More broadly, we want to create a culture of greater giving in the regions.”
To this end, a VIP programme, which will take an audience of leading international art collectors and philanthropists on a tour of cultural institutions in Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield on 10 and 12 October, will present the north of England as an opportunity for investment and philanthropy.
With the lion’s share of private donations to arts and culture going to London institutions, few museum professionals would deny the burning need for cash-poor regional museums to fully exploit philanthropy and sponsorship. This form of funding, however, does not come without its challenges.
Strong relationships
Some regional museums have been so debilitated by budget cuts that they are struggling to create the infrastructure or expertise needed to court and attract philanthropists in the first place. Their precarious financial position could, in fact, put off potential philanthropists looking for reassurance that any project they support will succeed.
Building strong relationships is key to win trust from private donors. But this takes a lot of time and resources to get right. “It is about the collector trusting that the museum will use the opportunity wisely and will recognise the collections appropriately,” says Streets. “Collecting is a very personal thing.”
Richard Clay, a senior lecturer in history of art at the University of Birmingham, is about to become a professor in digital humanities at Newcastle University, says the higher-education sector is often good at securing philanthropic support, but organisations need to be very committed to these types of relationships to make them work effectively.
“Museums need to embed a culture of fundraising in all staff, not just the board and trustees,” Clay says.
One solution for museums with a lack of resources in this area, according to Clay, is to broker relationships with universities, which are used to generating large amounts of money through fundraising.
Among the ways in which they achieve this is by training academics to build a compelling case for additional funding for research projects. Museums could exploit their in-house expertise in the same way by ensuring curators and other specialists can showcase, for example, the public or social benefit of their work. Clay adds that universities, motivated by the power that a culturally rich city has to retain and attract graduates, could play an important role in upskilling the cultural sector in their regions.
Arts Council England’s (ACE) Catalyst – a scheme to help the sector take advantage of fundraising from private sources, philanthropy and endowments – includes a funding stream to help organisations such as museums and galleries build their fundraising capabilities and embed new business models that increase and diversify forms of income. There is also matched funding available for organisations to improve their fundraising capabilities over a three-year period.
Offsetting cuts
While Streets acknowledges that private money won’t save the museum sector, which is best served by a mixed-funding approach, it can be used to offset cuts in public funding. Although Going Public receives money from collectors, trusts and foundations, most of its funding comes from ACE and Sheffield City Council.
Collectors involved with Going Public acknowledge the potential conflicts of interest that can arise between public institutions and private donors. Speaking at a press briefing in June, Cattelain, a trustee of the Louvre in Paris and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, said it is common for private collectors to want to promote their own interests.
“This already happens in museums all over the world,” he said, adding that it is therefore vital that museums have a strong vision and remain in the driving seat.
Cattelain believes those who are proactive and embrace philanthropic opportunities are less likely to be overwhelmed by any private interests that collectors might have.
“It is similar to working with a contemporary artist,” says Streets. “It is not about control, so much as a dialogue. It is about the relationship and the trust involved, and then a detailed discussion and good understanding of the spaces. We arrive with excellent knowledge of our audiences and spaces, and the collectors bring specialist knowledge of their collections.”
Short-term money
The short-term or temporary nature of private money is also a concern for museums, galleries and other cultural institutions. Private money, unlike a public funding settlement, does not always cover specific timeframes or have much impact on an organisation’s core funding position. One way of remedying this uncertainty is to get benefactors or philanthropists to contribute to an endowment fund.
Museums such as Oxford’s Ashmolean are making use of support available through the Catalyst scheme to build endowments that provide an annual income. Earlier this year, an anonymous UK benefactor pledged to match all donations to the Ashmolean Fund, set up by the University of Oxford to raise a £50m endowment. The seven-figure sum was offered on the condition that it is used to match other gifts to the fund.
Expected to provide at least 20% of the museum’s annual operating costs, the fund should deliver around £2m a year. “A lot of the fundraising that the Ashmolean is undertaking at the moment is towards supporting the endowment,” says Lucy Shaw, the partnership manager at Oxford University Museums.
“So in the immediate future, it won’t result in a lot of cash coming into the museum, but in the long term, it will provide a really useful resource financially. A philanthropist will sometimes like to give to short-term projects so they can have their name assigned to something. Obviously, with an endowment, it’s a longer game.”
Private money might arrive faster if museums identify potential local philanthropists’ and whether their interests or collections are represented within the museum’s events, displays or exhibitions. “Does an organisation’s day-to-day offer make sense to a population that might be second-, third- or fourth-generation immigrants who have grown up in this country but don’t see their understanding of their city reflected in its museums’ displays?” asks Clay.
“Are museums and galleries missing out on a significant population of wealthy people who might actually be rather inclined to give?”
Researching motivation
It is also worth researching what would motivate a modern-day philanthropist to give. While philanthropists in the 19th and early 20th centuries may have given because of a longstanding connection with a town or city, religious duty or the upper-class fashion for goodwill, the drivers for today’s benefactors are less clear-cut. This is especially true when it comes to online donations, which support museums through initiatives such as crowdfunding.
Streets is keen to emphasise that although the museum sector is facing significant challenges, the importance of philanthropy is not new. “Philanthropy is not a dirty word,” she says. “If you go back 150 years, the greatest museums and collections in this country were formed by philanthropists, who worked with local councils and the government to make it happen.”
Fundraising support available to museums
The Catalyst endowment scheme, jointly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Arts Council England (ACE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund, has helped 34 national and regional cultural organisations across the UK establish endowments.
With the aim of leveraging more than £110m from private donors, the scheme offers matched funding to organisations with a successful track record of fundraising, to help them build endowments that provide an annual income.
The Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Programme, part funded by the DCMS and ACE, aims to improve fundraising practice within the arts and cultural sector, encouraging entrepreneurialism and leadership. Working with development specialists from arts organisations across England, the programme provides training in areas including digital, as well as encouraging innovative practice.
The arts council’s Museums Resilience Fund is designed to help museums become more robust and sustainable. The budget for 2014-15 was £10m, although the scheme is closed to applications until the outcome of the spending review in the autumn.
Going Public: International Art Collectors (16 September to 12 December) might also have a lasting impact on regional philanthropy. The show is spread across five Sheffield venues and includes artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Sarah Lucas and Maurizio Cattelan, as well as the Chapman brothers. The works have been lent by high-profile art collectors, including Nicolas Cattelain.
The purpose of the project is to create a “new model” for philanthropic giving in the UK, according to Kim Streets, the chief executive of Museums Sheffield. A summit event, taking place on 12 October, will bring international art figures together to debate the role of private philanthropy for the arts and culture sector
.
Contemporary art consultant Mark Doyle, who masterminded the project with postwar and contemporary art adviser Sebastien Montabonel, says that there is a worrying lack of critical debate over how the private sector can work with public art institutions, especially during a time of continued cuts in public funding for culture.
“We want to create a legacy in Sheffield,” Doyle says. “It’s about business leaders in the city understanding the benefit that culture can bring. More broadly, we want to create a culture of greater giving in the regions.”
To this end, a VIP programme, which will take an audience of leading international art collectors and philanthropists on a tour of cultural institutions in Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield on 10 and 12 October, will present the north of England as an opportunity for investment and philanthropy.
With the lion’s share of private donations to arts and culture going to London institutions, few museum professionals would deny the burning need for cash-poor regional museums to fully exploit philanthropy and sponsorship. This form of funding, however, does not come without its challenges.
Strong relationships
Some regional museums have been so debilitated by budget cuts that they are struggling to create the infrastructure or expertise needed to court and attract philanthropists in the first place. Their precarious financial position could, in fact, put off potential philanthropists looking for reassurance that any project they support will succeed.
Building strong relationships is key to win trust from private donors. But this takes a lot of time and resources to get right. “It is about the collector trusting that the museum will use the opportunity wisely and will recognise the collections appropriately,” says Streets. “Collecting is a very personal thing.”
Richard Clay, a senior lecturer in history of art at the University of Birmingham, is about to become a professor in digital humanities at Newcastle University, says the higher-education sector is often good at securing philanthropic support, but organisations need to be very committed to these types of relationships to make them work effectively.
“Museums need to embed a culture of fundraising in all staff, not just the board and trustees,” Clay says.
One solution for museums with a lack of resources in this area, according to Clay, is to broker relationships with universities, which are used to generating large amounts of money through fundraising.
Among the ways in which they achieve this is by training academics to build a compelling case for additional funding for research projects. Museums could exploit their in-house expertise in the same way by ensuring curators and other specialists can showcase, for example, the public or social benefit of their work. Clay adds that universities, motivated by the power that a culturally rich city has to retain and attract graduates, could play an important role in upskilling the cultural sector in their regions.
Arts Council England’s (ACE) Catalyst – a scheme to help the sector take advantage of fundraising from private sources, philanthropy and endowments – includes a funding stream to help organisations such as museums and galleries build their fundraising capabilities and embed new business models that increase and diversify forms of income. There is also matched funding available for organisations to improve their fundraising capabilities over a three-year period.
Offsetting cuts
While Streets acknowledges that private money won’t save the museum sector, which is best served by a mixed-funding approach, it can be used to offset cuts in public funding. Although Going Public receives money from collectors, trusts and foundations, most of its funding comes from ACE and Sheffield City Council.
Collectors involved with Going Public acknowledge the potential conflicts of interest that can arise between public institutions and private donors. Speaking at a press briefing in June, Cattelain, a trustee of the Louvre in Paris and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, said it is common for private collectors to want to promote their own interests.
“This already happens in museums all over the world,” he said, adding that it is therefore vital that museums have a strong vision and remain in the driving seat.
Cattelain believes those who are proactive and embrace philanthropic opportunities are less likely to be overwhelmed by any private interests that collectors might have.
“It is similar to working with a contemporary artist,” says Streets. “It is not about control, so much as a dialogue. It is about the relationship and the trust involved, and then a detailed discussion and good understanding of the spaces. We arrive with excellent knowledge of our audiences and spaces, and the collectors bring specialist knowledge of their collections.”
Short-term money
The short-term or temporary nature of private money is also a concern for museums, galleries and other cultural institutions. Private money, unlike a public funding settlement, does not always cover specific timeframes or have much impact on an organisation’s core funding position. One way of remedying this uncertainty is to get benefactors or philanthropists to contribute to an endowment fund.
Museums such as Oxford’s Ashmolean are making use of support available through the Catalyst scheme to build endowments that provide an annual income. Earlier this year, an anonymous UK benefactor pledged to match all donations to the Ashmolean Fund, set up by the University of Oxford to raise a £50m endowment. The seven-figure sum was offered on the condition that it is used to match other gifts to the fund.
Expected to provide at least 20% of the museum’s annual operating costs, the fund should deliver around £2m a year. “A lot of the fundraising that the Ashmolean is undertaking at the moment is towards supporting the endowment,” says Lucy Shaw, the partnership manager at Oxford University Museums.
“So in the immediate future, it won’t result in a lot of cash coming into the museum, but in the long term, it will provide a really useful resource financially. A philanthropist will sometimes like to give to short-term projects so they can have their name assigned to something. Obviously, with an endowment, it’s a longer game.”
Private money might arrive faster if museums identify potential local philanthropists’ and whether their interests or collections are represented within the museum’s events, displays or exhibitions. “Does an organisation’s day-to-day offer make sense to a population that might be second-, third- or fourth-generation immigrants who have grown up in this country but don’t see their understanding of their city reflected in its museums’ displays?” asks Clay.
“Are museums and galleries missing out on a significant population of wealthy people who might actually be rather inclined to give?”
Researching motivation
It is also worth researching what would motivate a modern-day philanthropist to give. While philanthropists in the 19th and early 20th centuries may have given because of a longstanding connection with a town or city, religious duty or the upper-class fashion for goodwill, the drivers for today’s benefactors are less clear-cut. This is especially true when it comes to online donations, which support museums through initiatives such as crowdfunding.
Streets is keen to emphasise that although the museum sector is facing significant challenges, the importance of philanthropy is not new. “Philanthropy is not a dirty word,” she says. “If you go back 150 years, the greatest museums and collections in this country were formed by philanthropists, who worked with local councils and the government to make it happen.”
Fundraising support available to museums
The Catalyst endowment scheme, jointly funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Arts Council England (ACE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund, has helped 34 national and regional cultural organisations across the UK establish endowments.
With the aim of leveraging more than £110m from private donors, the scheme offers matched funding to organisations with a successful track record of fundraising, to help them build endowments that provide an annual income.
The Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Programme, part funded by the DCMS and ACE, aims to improve fundraising practice within the arts and cultural sector, encouraging entrepreneurialism and leadership. Working with development specialists from arts organisations across England, the programme provides training in areas including digital, as well as encouraging innovative practice.
The arts council’s Museums Resilience Fund is designed to help museums become more robust and sustainable. The budget for 2014-15 was £10m, although the scheme is closed to applications until the outcome of the spending review in the autumn.