Fund Raising for the Performing Arts: Life After the Lottery - How can we Adapt

Abstract

In this paper we identify some practical examples of fundraising drawn from a number of semi-structured interviews with individuals who had recent experience of fund raising in the performing arts. The central section of this paper consists of a short case study of a four-year fund raising campaign at a provincial theatre. Research outcomes include some reflections for consideration in future projects. Many theatres offer an almost identical portfolio of fundraising schemes but the relative success of different activities seems to vary from case to case. The decline of the Lottery and the growth of the super wealthy suggest that fundraising from private donors, and major private donors in particular, is likely to gain more prominence in the years ahead. Nevertheless, it also seems common that far too little time and care is spent in preparing and targeting applications to grant awarding trusts and other bodies.