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This October, we held the first NI Arts Funders Exchange. Sarah Jones, Blueprint Programme Manager, shares her reflections and learnings.

The NI Arts Funders Exchange hosted by Arts & Business NI, welcomed those who fund the arts in Northern Ireland to come together, connect and engage in forward-thinking discussions about the challenges in arts funding. There is no point in pretending that the landscape of funding for the arts in NI, is anything other than challenging. As A&B NI Blueprint Programme Manager, I hear first-hand from arts organisations about the day-to-day impacts. There are many issues, but it is safe to say that the effect of systemic underfunding continues to have a lasting and detrimental effect on our organisations, in terms of ambition, skills development, long-term financial planning, new talent entering the sector and the ongoing health of organisations.

However, while access to better levels of funding will remain a key and vital discussion point, we wanted to take the opportunity to explore a new way forward, to examine how the existing funding systems may be challenged or used in alternative ways to have greater impact and strengthen the sector.

Why Us?

Through the A&B NI Blueprint Programme, we find ourselves in the position of being both a funded organisation and a funder of organisations, through a new delivery model. As we develop the programme, we want to continue questioning what best practice in grant giving looks like.

We also believe that our learnings from the programme, have the potential to extend beyond us and reach into the wider sector. The most impactful successes we have seen through Blueprint have only been possible because we have been able to test a new model and have chosen to do things differently.

We are constantly learning and refining our approach, however the key elements which we have found to make the biggest difference are:

• Collaboration: The Blueprint programme would not have been possible through one stream of funding. It was the combined power of private and statuary funders coming together, which leveraged the funding and provided a fund large enough to make real impact for our 17 participating organisations over 5 years.
• Support Network: Feedback and evaluation are showing that we have exponentially increased the impact of the grants awarded by providing a high level of support. Money by itself doesn’t make a lasting impact, but training, peer-to-peer learning and support alongside the grants is creating real organisational change.
• Flexibility: By placing our trust in the organisations and allowing as much flexibility as possible within the grants, we allow organisations to make decisions about the change that’s right for them. Flexibility allows organisations to build stability and resilience across all areas including governance, leadership, financial planning and the development of new income streams.
• Allowing Failure: Looking at the potential for success and being ambitious means that failure is inevitable and that is OK! We want to see progression towards resilience and stability however no one is being punished for trying and testing only to find it is not working.
• Trust: We have made the conscious decision to focus on trusting organisations to do what they believe to be right for their organisations. We focus on what the outcomes are, rather than an over analysis of how they spend the grant.

What was said on the day?

As we looked to alternative models and ways of thinking about funding, we were joined by Kate Beggs National Lottery Community Fund, James Banks London Funders, Seva Philips NESTA and Shoubhik Bandopadhyay Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Each brought insights regarding the landscape of funding in NI and inspiration around alternative models which we could learn from.

We were heartened that many of our Blueprint learnings, chimed with the funders in the room. Several strong themes emerged as we considered what good grant making looks like including:

• Collaboration: It has been demonstrated that in times of crisis such as the pandemic, that funders can come together and collaborate quickly and effectively around a shared issue where action is needed immediately. During these periods sharing information, systems and fund distribution has been seen to have incredibly positive impacts, so why shouldn’t we harness that learning and collaborate more on a day-to-day basis? If working together can give us greater knowledge of grantees and reduce the burden of the mechanics of grant giving, this would give funders more capacity to build personal and meaningful relationships with clients. It is through these relationships that greater impact can be made.
• Mission: As organisations look for additional funding, some are forced to diversify where they are applying to and as a result there is a real potential for mission drift. What we need is to combat this and ensure that organisations are being funded for what they do well by the right funders and those links and connections are made.
• Impact: We need to move the conversation of what impact really looks like towards a space where we consider everything as a whole, it’s not just about delivery numbers. Organisations will not have an impact externally if they are not strong internally. Often they need to be supported in finding what sustainable means to them. We should not always be looking for more! In many cases organisations would have a greater impact if they were supported to do less, be true to their mission and refined their offer.
• Trust and flexibility: This should be at the heart of everything. Organisations will do more and have more impact if they are given the opportunity to react and respond to what they know to be necessary. The relationship between a funder and organisation should be an ongoing conversation which works both ways.

What’s next?

Delivering the A&B NI Blueprint Programme is both a joy and a daily lesson, as we aim to ensure we are reactive to and reflective of the organisations we are working with. We are passionate about it and are beginning to see great impacts, but we are just one programme, working within an incredibly intricate ecosystem.

The NI Arts Funders Exchange event was the first step in opening discussions within that eco system. The fantastic speakers ignited ideas and conversation and it was brilliant to have everyone in a room together discussing issues which are so impactful to us all.

We believe that there is potential to work towards the change we need. To do that we need more opportunity to come together, we need to continue the conversations and work together.

A message which has stuck with me from the day was, no-one doesn’t want this to work. Funders want positive impact from their investments and organisations want to be enabled to do what they are best at. It is important that we work towards creating an environment and finding the mechanisms to make it happen.