New research commissioned by a group of Trusts and Foundations demonstrates their significant investment in the UK’s arts and cultural ecology.
Key findings include:
The briefing was commissioned by The Arts Funders Group, a group of independent Trusts and Foundations who meet regularly to share intelligence and shape collective action. The Group is part of the ACF Funders’ Collaborative Hub.
The data aimed to show the overall contribution of Trusts and Foundations to the UK’s arts funding ecology, and to highlight how it fits into the wider funding context (particularly at a time of change), identifying shared priorities and ambitions. It analyses grants made by the 19 most significant Trusts and Foundations in the arts and culture sector in the financial year 2019/20, the last ‘typical’ year where audited information was available.
Sufina Ahmad, Director John Ellerman Foundation said: “Independent grant-makers coming together and sharing their data in this way was an important exercise to commit to – even if it did feel experimental at times! The research reveals the contribution we are making to the UK’s arts and cultural sectors, which will become even more important as organisations look to recover from the impacts of Covid-19 against a backdrop of stretched public funding.”
“By coming together to analyse our funding data, we can better understand our shared role in supporting the UK’s arts and cultural organisations. Each of us individually is a small component in the complex arts fundraising landscape in the UK, but we are all committed to supporting the creative industries to recover and thrive, and are pleased to be working together to assess opportunities for greater collective impact.”
Last year, we concluded the second round of funding through the PHF Arts Fund. Looking at the organisations we have supported through this round, we see a sustained commitment to artistic freedom, to working across difference and to celebrating places and communities across the UK.
Our Head of Programme – Arts, Shoubhik Bandopadhyay, explores some of the shared approaches we’re noticing in round two of our Arts Fund.
