NPAC’s Current Initiatives

New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture is a developing initiative as well as a resource for arts organisations and their supporters. Here are some of the projects we’re working on right now.

NPAC is now part of Figurative

New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture is coming together with Arts & Culture Finance (ACF), previously part of Nesta to form a brand new organisation –Figurative – an independent not-for-profit dedicated to impact, investment and innovation in the cultural and creative sector.

Figurative aims to:

Attract significant new investment to the cultural and creative sector by raising and managing new social investment funds and supporting the sector to diversify its funding streams and networks.
Make the UK a global hub for cultural innovation through world-leading innovation programmes for organisations experimenting with funding and business models, new technologies and services.
Be a centre of excellence for arts and impact, helping organisations monitor and articulate the difference they make in the world and exploring how social and environmental goals can be supported by responsible finance.

The work of the new organisation will be supported by key sector players including Arts Council England, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, as well as impact investment leaders Better Society Capital who are among the investors in its funds.

You can find out more about the work of Figurative on our new website.

Arts for Impact – a matched funding opportunity

NPAC partnered with the Big Give, the UK’s leading match fund platform, on its inaugural Arts for Impact Matched Funding campaign in March 2024. The campaign was aimed at supporting arts and culture charities working to achieve societal impact across the UK, with the public’s generosity multiplied, as donations to the participating charities were doubled by the Big Give’s Arts for Impact match fund, which has been supported by generous ‘champions’, typically philanthropists, foundations or companies.

Over the 7 days of the Arts for Impact challenge in 2024, a record £2.8million was raised for 238 arts and culture charities across the UK.

We are planning to run Arts for Impact again in 2025, with arts & culture charities able to apply to take part in the autumn of 2024. Please check the Big Give website in the autumn for more information.

Creating regional partnerships

We’re working on establishing and supporting up to 10 regional partnerships around the UK. Focused on specific places, these groups will be modelled to accommodate the geographical specific needs of each area in which they operate, those models having been researched and developed during NPAC’s work to date.

NPAC will focus on supporting regional philanthropists to develop their role in establishing local networks.

Networks are being supported and developed in Sunderland, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Stoke and Middlesbrough, Gloucester, and Hastings & Rother with further locations to be identified.

If you’d like to join one of our networks (or have ideas for starting a network of your own!), please get in touch.

Nurturing the next generation of arts trustees, and creating a new cohort of arts supporters

NPAC is supporting the creation of a new organisation, Responsible Influence in Arts & Culture (RIAC) in response to the challenge of identify new trustees to lead our arts and cultural organisations into the future. The idea for RIAC was born out of a discussion among four former colleagues from UBS who are passionate about and involved at board level in the broad spectrum of the arts.

RIAC has the principal aim of establishing a ‘next generation cohort’ of passionate individuals, with relevant skillsets, who can assume the baton from the current generation of board members and help mentor the next. You can read more about RIAC’s work on the RIAC website.

RIAC will develop a network of interested individuals, with a diverse range of skills and professional backgrounds, to put themselves forwards as potential trustees or mentors for arts organisations.

Alongside these ‘next gen’ trustees, some NPAC founder members will be invited to join a roster of senior arts trustees and philanthropists who are willing to act as mentors, while the NPAC team and senior leadership will reach out to organisations across the arts sector to establish a diverse list of selected organisations with trustee vacancies. Please get in touch if you are interested in learning more about these initiatives.

Ongoing support for the arts and culture sector

NPAC is creating, updating and developing our web resource for the sector including the arts philanthropy toolkit so do check out that area of our website.

We continue to maintain a dialogue with both ACE and DCMS, to align our thinking with initiatives around philanthropy and work together to create opportunities for increased philanthropic engagement.

Sir Vernon Ellis (chair) and Anna Rowe (project director) from NPAC recently presented as part of the Association of British Orchestras spring 2023 conference in Leeds under the heading “Building Resilience through Philanthropy”.

It was great to connect with so many arts and culture professionals in such a positive space to talk about philanthropy, why it’s vital (especially in 2023), and to share ideas for building capacity.

Delegate feedback included “I could have spent all afternoon in that one session”.