Philanthropy Development
We encourage philanthropic giving to the cultural and creative sector, helping organisations and supporters develop local partnerships.
Figurative’s philanthropy development work is conducted by the New Philanthropy for Arts & Culture (NPAC) team. NPAC was established as a cause-related network in June 2019, under the chairmanship of Sir Vernon Ellis and became part of Figurative in 2024.
Our work focuses on researching and developing means of attracting new philanthropy into the arts and culture sector, alongside supporting arts leaders to feel confident seeking philanthropic giving and developing a range of funding sources for their work.
The founder members of the NPAC network are generous supporters of the arts and aware of the significant potential of new sources of private funding, in particular from individual donors, to support and sustain the sector.
As our work has developed, we have created three resource hubs:
- Support for the arts and culture sector, which provides some resources to assist in attracting gifts for your organisations.
- Support for arts supporters and would-be supporters through the formation of a series of regional partnerships.
- Research into arts philanthropy; what motivates arts donors and how the sector model might evolve to attract new supporters.
Our current programmes include the Arts for Impact matched funding campaign, in partnership with Big Give, and our Place-Based Partnerships bringing together cultural and creative organisations and local philanthropists in regional networks.
We have also developed a rich and growing resource of more than 40 case studies across the cultural and creative sector which together make a powerful case for further support. In time, we will showcase these and other aspects of our work on the Figurative website – but in the meantime, you can access them here. We hope you find these both interesting and useful in your exploration of the sector.
