News from June 2010

Thanks to everyone who came to our Industry Briefing ‘Aim High’ yesterday at Hull City Hall. It took place as the Emergency Budget was announced, making the topic of building sustainability and diversifying income streams in times of economic uncertainty even more relevant than ever.

In the morning, delegates heard from Dr. Jonathan Holmes, Director, Founder and Playwright at Jericho House, who gave a direct response to the recent cuts to arts and cultural funding and discussed some of the measures Jericho House has taken to build its sustainability. Some interesting points emerged, with the notion of ‘in-kind’ giving proving successful for Jericho House – the practice of building non-financial partnerships - and looking at the value organisations have in their intellectual property. Jonathan also made the point that for every £1 of investment that the arts receive, £4 goes straight back to the treasury in taxes, and that the arts is an incredibly lucrative sector. He stated that we need to be more confident and proud of the impact that arts and cultural organisations make to our society and economy.

In the afternoon we heard from Brian Debnam, an Arts and Cultural Consultant who talked to us about ‘Budgeting in Troubled Times’. Delegates were told about the ‘7 C’s’ of survival, which included the notion of collaborating to save resources, being clearer about what the value of our work is and cultivating relationships with potential philanthropic partners.

Representatives from Eureka! and Northern Ballet Theatre presented direct case studies of their own efforts to build sustainability. Rebekah Smith and Chloe Oldman from Eureka! (an organisation that receives no government funding) gave some really interesting insights into how they had managed to raise the income they needed year on year.  There was a strong focus on the way they looked at their strengths and developed income streams accordingly, including extra-curricular activities with school’s and corporate team-building days at Eureka! Jon Ingham from Northern Ballet Theatre discussed their momentum fundraising project for their new building, and introduced the ‘The Fundraising Cycle’. The importance of identifying donors from existing relationships, and building these relationships was also stressed.

Simon Cronshaw, Managing Partner of CultureLabel.com and co-author of ‘Intelligent Naivety’ discussed the concept of bringing the product directly to the consumer, rather than expecting them to come over the ‘threshold’. The theme of aggregation, as well as thinking and working collectively was a common thread throughout his session.

To finish the day, Richard Brown, Regional Director from Arts and Business, chaired the Panel Session and delivered breaking news of the Emergency Budget details.

For those who attended, you will receive an email tomorrow with a survey to find out what you thought of the day. You will receive all presentations from the day on completion of this survey. If you were unable to attend yesterday but would like to view the presentations, please email Lisa Farrell, Connect Co-ordinator at lisa@andco.uk.com.