R&D on T&F's : What We Have Learnt Since Our Symposium
01 Aug 2024
By Holly Foskett - A&B NI Arts Programme Manager
It’s been 6 months since our annual Trusts & Foundations Symposium, and we haven’t stopped. With continued open feedback and research from attendees and funders alongside developing events and training for our members on various aspects of fundraising, the symposium for 2025 is shaping up nicely and our support to strengthen Trusts & Foundations (T&F) fundraising journeys continue.
What do we know?
Over 1,700 UK based grant giving charitable trusts and foundations were registered with the Charity Commission in 2020, many of which have funding streams for arts and cultural activity and a focus on access, participation and growth of arts based skills and talent. Research shows that in 2019-20 trusts and foundations provided an average of 10% to UK arts organisations, and the combined investment was £88m in this period.
According to Grant Nav UK, in 2023, 1532 grants that total to £37,500,524, were given from 38 funders to organisations throughout Northern Ireland, with the average grant given ranging from £1k-£5k. Of those, 79 grants were awarded to arts and cultural organisations, with 64 of them being part of the A&B NI network. From this data, the investment into the arts and cultural sector in Northern Ireland was £3,030,406.
Currently in this year from January-June 2024, 110 grants have been given from 16 funders totalling £1,839,184 so far. Of the 6 arts and cultural organisations who were successful, 4 are A&B NI members . These grants mean that £3,727,000 has been given to the sector from Trusts & Foundations.
This just gives some insight into the current fundraising climate in Northern Ireland within the arts and cultural sector.
What have we learnt?
From our Trusts & Foundations Symposium in 2023 and earlier this year in February 2024, we have spoken to funders and attendees to gain insights on the funding process, the wants and needs for Trusts & Foundations investment and everything in between!
"It was good to get to see the funders and ask them questions one to one. Learning who is definitely not a good fit was also very helpful"
"First hand information direct from the funders about their likes and dislikes on each application and relationship with companies they have funded"
"Opportunity to share funding advice with peers in the arts sector"
Funders attending the Symposium in 2024, have indicated an increase in demand for investment with applications doubling since 2020. With comments on the high number and high quality of submitted applications and cases for support, this has made the funding competitive. This increase has led funders to give additional time on compliance by looking at the financial situation of each applicant as well as the specific detail requested and how it aligns with their foundations objectives, priorities of support and mission.
The increased demand for investment can be seen when comparing and contrasting the data submitted by 2023 and 2024 Symposium attendees. The data showed that 2024 attendees submitted 6+ T&F applications in their last financial year, with an increased ask for investment in project delivery and core costs in comparison to 2023 attendees. In 2024, the overall success rate for funding applications ranged from 25-50%, whereas in 2023 the success rate was 50-75%, this shows a decrease in successful funding following application submission for 2024. This could be for a number of reasons, such as increased applications demand for funding, applications to inappropriate funders and various other barriers to submitting applications.
However, the barriers for attendees from 2023 and 2024 symposium and their T&F Fundraising journeys remain the same with a majority of attendees saying their barriers are lack of capacity, not enough time for applications and lack of skills and training
"Time to focus on applications with competing deadlines whilst finding suitable funds for the areas we need support. Also writing skills, I feel like I have to brush up on this."
What has happened?
Through our fundraising and arts support alongside the Trusts & Foundations Symposium and Bootcamp some of our members have received support from Foyle Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Irelands Funds, DWF Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund and more funder attendees from 2023 and 2024.
“We met with the representative at the Foyle Foundation at the 2023 symposium and felt that we were a good fit so decided to apply and got funding from them! The Trusts & Foundations bootcamp last year was massively helpful as someone relatively new to fundraising at the time. I got help with the application as I found it quite intense! I’m not sure I would have understood what each question was asking me for without the help. We were successful with our application and while attending this year’s symposium, we took the opportunity chat to Foyle Foundation again, which was great to keep the contact fresh and let them know what we got up to since we last spoke.
We have gained so much useful feedback on how we can continue to develop this aspect of our arts programme. With continued research and insight from our arts members network, we will continue to shape our programme to help strengthen fundraising skills in the sector but also help inform funders on the barriers, and needs for specific aspects of funding for the sector.
More of this research will be discussed at our Trusts & Foundations Symposium in 2025 (6th February- save the date!)
Want to learn more or need support?
If you are interested in finding out more about Trusts & Foundations or other aspects fundraising for your organisations we have many resources and guides that can help via the Arts Member Log in area or get in contact with us directly to help discuss your fundraising journey with Trusts & Foundations- h.foskett@artsandbusinessni.org.uk
Our Funders & Partners
Arts & Business NI is generously supported by The Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
