· €210,000 in 2013 Philanthropy Initiative to support private fundraising by arts organisations
· Arts education will be major focus of 2013 scheme
· 2012 scheme exceeds targets, generates €4.26 in private funding for every €1 invested by the taxpayer
Sunday, February 17th - Jimmy Deenihan TD, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has today announced the details of his Department's Philanthropy Initiative for 2013.
In 2012, Minister Deenihan launched a Philanthropy Initiative to provide an incentive to arts organisations to proactively seek new and multi-annual relationships with sponsors which would deliver more private sector funding for the arts. Taxpayer funding was made available for organisations that could match this with funding from the private sector.
This year, €210,000 will be available to arts organisations under the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht's Philanthropy Initiative. Under the terms of the scheme, arts and culture organisations can apply to the Philanthropy Initiative for funding if they can augment the amount with private fundraising in the following ratios:
· Up to €5,000 of funds can be accessed through the scheme if the organisation can match each €1 from the taxpayer with €2 from private sector funding
· Up to €10,000 if each €1 from the taxpayer can be matched by €3 from private sector funding
· Up to €15,000 if each €1 from the taxpayer can be matched by €4 from private sector funding
In a new departure for the initiative, for 2013 the majority of the Philanthropy Initiative funding will be directed towards arts and culture organisations that are looking for support for projects that include an education component. This is to support the Arts in Education Charter, launched recently by Minister Deenihan and Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn TD, which sets out a range of actions now being progressed by both Departments, cultural institutions and arts organisations to increase arts education for children and young people.
Minister Deenihan commented:
“The 2012 Philanthropy Initiative exceeded all expectations and gives an example of how the careful targeting of taxpayer funding can produce very good value for money. The arts got a boost of over €1 million last year, of which less than one-fifth came from the public purse.
"A more long-term result is that there are thirty arts and culture organisations out there today who successfully tried out fundraising in 2012. I hope that they can develop their fundraising capacity further, based on what they learnt from engaging with the 2012 initiative.
"One of my policy aims is to increase Arts in Education. This year, I hope that the Philanthropy Initiative, while continuing to provide an incentive to arts organisations to engage in fundraising, will also get arts and culture organisations engaging creatively with children and young people and adding to their education. In doing so, they will be helping to foster the artists - and the audiences - of the future."
The Philanthropy Initiative was introduced in 2012 by Minister Deenihan as part of a significant policy push to increase private sector support for arts and culture. It was hoped that for every €1 of public money invested, private sector funds of €2.50 could be generated. At the end of 2012 the scheme was reviewed. The results indicated that the 2012 scheme was a considerable success and exceeded targets by unlocking 70% more private sector funding than had been targeted.
In 2012 a total of 31 arts and culture organisations were paid €202,000 in grants under the initiative. This was matched with fundraising from private sources totalling €863,000. Every €1 of taxpayer funds was matched by €4.26 from the private sector, meaning the State's investment of €202,000 generated total additional funding of over €1 million for the arts in 2012.
Projects that benefitted from the Philanthropy Initiative in 2012 included the Limerick Corridor Art Programme, Temple Bar Gallery, The Butler Gallery, IMMA, the Dublin Theatre Festival, Boston College, and the GAZE Film Festival.
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Note to Editors:
Organisations which received funding in 2012 will be excluded in the initial part of the 2013 scheme to allow new organisations to engage with the scheme. The most significant change to the initiative between 2012 and 2013 is that its aim will be that the majority of the available funding of €210,000 will go to Arts-in-Education projects.
As in 2012, organisations will have to procure matching funds and complete their drawdown in 2013. Matched funding cannot come from public funds or from any public sector organisation. Funding will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis until the overall ceiling of €210,000 has been reached and will be subject to the arts in education aim.