Adapting and Changing- Trusts & Foundations Symposium 2025
11 Mar 2025
By Holly Foskett - A&B NI Arts Programme Manager
Our annual Trusts & Foundations Symposium has been a highlight of our arts programme for 13 years. This event gives insight on funder priorities and helps foster meaningful connections for investment with organisations within the arts and cultural sector here in NI.
Each year we gain thought-provoking feedback from our attendees and funders, which we use to inform our arts sector support programme. In this blog, I wanted to share some of our key take-aways and learnings about the current Trusts and Foundations fundraising landscape and our plans for the future.
A bit of Background- What is the purpose of the Symposium?
Our first Trust & Foundations Symposium was held in 2012, and we know a lot has changed since then (Though, I still think the absolute 2012 anthem "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen is still a pure bop!)
The purpose of the symposium then was to help arts organisations get the opportunity to talk to funders and gain valuable insights into fundraising. The majority of charitable foundations at the time where based outside of NI; which presented a big challenge to local arts organisations wanting to develop new funding relationships. To support this our Annual Trusts & Foundations Symposium was born, and since then it has provided face-to-face opportunities for individuals on either side of the funding table to share their vision and ambition.
Since then, we have helped facilitate, over 700 one-to-one funding surgeries, helping to generate substantial amounts of money and support for the Cultural Sector in Northern Ireland. This also provided upskilling opportunities for fundraisers in the sector who gained top tips for applications and, gained insights into funding priorities for the foundations and their decision processes.
But as we know, things have changed, and the landscape of fundraising and Trusts and Foundations have changed dramatically.
What do we know?
In the UK there are around 10,000 registered trusts and foundations. 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.
According to Grant Nav UK, in 2023, 1532 grants that total to £3.6million, were given from 38 funders to organisations throughout Northern Ireland. With Arts Council Northern Ireland annual funding survey findings 2023-2024 we can see that £3.1 million from trusts and foundations have been invested into the arts sector during this period and its suggests that there have has been 7% increases in T&F contributions.
And so far, data from 2024 via GrantNav shows 596 grants were given from 28 funders totalling to 23.2 million being invested to organisations in NI. To learn more about the current climate and the realities of being a funder and arts fundraiser now, we consulted with our arts members and the trusts and foundations representatives that had engaged in the symposium over the years.
What have we learnt?
For arts-based fundraisers and those who had previously attended the 2023 and 2024 T&F symposium we found that:
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Time and capacity remained a barrier for getting applications in
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More strategic thinking and approaches for trusts and foundations investment has been considered
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More meaningful and strategic applications have been made to the funders who’s aims and ethos links to the organisations goals and need for investment.
With the changing external landscape, many changes are happening in trusts and foundations:
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Many are feeling overwhelmed with applications
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In response to this many foundations are changing their priorities for funding and streamlining their processes
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A number of foundations are spending down funds and closing, which has added more pressure and demand on other funders.
Many of these factors have caused this a shift in the climate for those applying for investment and support, and for funding best practise and governance.
We asked funders what challenges grant makers were facing, what changes they are making within their grant making and what they are looking to achieve and change in the next 5 years.
What we found was that funders attending the Symposium in 2023-2025, have:
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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 more competitive.
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Demands have led funders to give additional scrutiny on compliance by looking at the financial situation of each applicant as well as the specific detail requested and how it aligns with their foundation’s objectives, priorities of support and mission.
Here are just some of the snapshots of the responses and highlights from the feedback and I want to thank those funders who took the time to input on this.
This shows that funders are looking at the accessibility of their processes, adapting to the demand of applications and adapting to other tools, methods being used within applications and in the world now and assessing their impact and evaluation through the perspective of both a funder and grantee.
Findings from previous symposium attendees surveyed showed that:
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There is an increased demand for investment from trusts and foundations
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Data showed that in 2024 attendees submitted more than 6 applications in their last financial year, with an increased ask for investment in project delivery and core costs in comparison to previous years
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In 2024, the overall success rate for funding applications ranged from 25-50%, whereas in 2025 the success rate was 50-75%
As you can see from the graph, looking for funds suitable for programmes, projects and covering core costs is a challenge also.
From feedback from our member support sessions and from fundraisers across various organisations, we hear that feeling isolated can be an issue, alongside managing funder relations and gaining insight and support.
The barriers for attendees from previous symposiums and their fundraising journeys remain the same with most attendees saying their barriers are lack of capacity, not enough time for applications and lack of skills and training.
I want to avoid a scattergun approach to fundraising and be very focussed on what our next moves are to get us towards our goals. This event helps with that reflection and the 2 funders I spoke with are definitely prospects and aligned.
What insights did we gain from the 2025 Symposium?
Minus that the catering in the Crescent Arts Centre is still banging, we had a lot of take aways and insights to help us be adaptive and reactive to the current fundraising landscape .Learnings from this year's symposium chimed with the trends we've picked up in previous years and through the open communication from funders and arts fundraisers.
At this year’s symposium we we were delighted to have Margaret Henry and Brenda McMullan from the Funders Forum NI , who shared their insight on the realities for funders within the local context of Northern Ireland. This was a great opportunity to hear more about the work they are doing to help support grantees, maximise impact and work with other funders.
We were also joined by representatives from Halifax Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund and the Freelands Foundation to discuss their funding priorities, adapting to the current landscape and the nitty gritty of policies, governance and structures. Attendees were given the opportunity to ask their questions to these funders for further guidance and insight before putting in an application.
From these open conversations it reinforced:
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Funders are feeling overwhelmed and the pressure on trusts and foundations is increasing.
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It also reinforced that good governance matters and is an important process for the application and funder relationship.
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Relationship building and authenticity matter. Funders are invested in and want to work with people with passion and ambition!
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Time and capacity remained a barrier for getting applications in from arts-based fundraisers
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More meaningful and strategic applications have been made to the funders who’s aims and ethos links to the organisations goals and need for investment
‘It's always good to hear directly from the Funders and I value the opportunity to hear from them at the Symposium.’
What is next?
To support our members and the wider arts sector on strategic funding and to address concerns and barriers within fundraising, we will continue to share learning and bring peers together.
One of the ways we do this is through Fundraising Connections -a quarterly networking and information session for those fundraising within the arts and cultural sector to collaborate by sharing ideas, resources, fundraising tips, successes, losses, potential funders and more. This pilot programme was also an opportunity to share upcoming funding/grant opportunities, fundraising events, training and other resources on different aspects of fundraising.
After great response and strategic development, Fundraising Connections is now open to all to engage and enjoy. These future events will cover insights and knowledge from others in our A&B NI member network and experts on various topics. Already we have covered elements on patron schemes, individual giving, applications and the last one I got into a conversation about bog people and the bogs around Ireland- nothing to do with fundraising but still very insightful!
Updates and announcements of future events and opportunities on Trusts & Foundation fundraising will be announced in due course after more discussions with attendees (and caffeine) so keep an eye out for this via our Arts Member mailing list comms or our social media
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.
