The very welcome publication of the updated Private Investment in Culture Survey has given us a much broader analysis of the levels of private investment (fundraised income) in the arts and cultural sector in England from 2012 through to 2015. However, it’s not the only analysis of private investment that exists, and it’s worth comparing these figures with those already published by Arts Council England and the DCMS.
The first thing to note is that the figure for the total amount of private income that the Private Investment in Culture Survey gives must remain an under-estimation of the amount of private income raised across the arts and cultural sector by quite some way.
The Private Investment in Culture Survey includes information on 2,874 active arts and culture organisations, and gives a total figure of £480 million raised in 2014/15 across them. However, the DCMS’ own Charitable Giving Indicators Report for 2014/15*. shows that DCMS–funded cultural institutions alone raised £428 million in donations, sponsorship and memberships, and a further £97 million from donated objects.
We know that there are many organisations not in receipt of regular funding from the DCMS or Arts Council England that also raise significant amounts of private investment – including galleries, orchestras, theatres, festivals and museums.
Whilst a good number of these will have contributed data to the Private Investment in Culture Survey, we are still not seeing the full cumulative figures of private investment across the publicly-funded and non-funded sector. The Private Investment in Culture Survey confirms the much reported London versus the rest of England disparity in funding levels, and perhaps under-reports them. London organisations that responded to the Private Investment in Culture Survey accounted for 63% of all private investment, with the West Midlands second on 9% and the North West and South West joint third on 6%. However, these regional splits will also include the very large organisations based in those regions. Arts Council England’s own Key Data from the 2014/15 Annual Submission excludes the eleven largest National Portfolio Organisations from its regional breakdowns.
Their breakdown of Contributed (private) income for National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) shows London NPOs receiving
34% of all income, large National NPOs receiving 35% of all income, and the North West, South East and South West NPOs all receiving 6% of all income. In the Arts Council report, the West Midlands NPOs (excluding major organisations such as Welsh National Opera and Birmingham Royal Ballet) receive only 3% of all Contributed income – a substantial variation from the Private Investment in Culture Survey figure.
A final, significant point is the Private Investment in Culture Survey’s confirmation of the importance of individual giving for fundraised income.
50% of all private investment came from individual giving, a figure that exactly correlates with that given in the Arts Council’s Key Data report. This is also the area that has seen most growth over the three-year period from 2012/2015 in Private Investment in Culture Survey across participating organisations. It is an unassailable fact across the charity sector that individual giving is by far the most important form of fundraised income. The Association of Charitable Foundations’ Giving Trends 2015 Report shows individual and major giving accounting for 65.9% of all private charitable giving. Arts and cultural charities came late to this party, and this offers further evidence for those that are not already doing so to focus on building their capacity for individual giving over the next few years. This area is consistently shown to be the most lucrative in terms of available.
