FUNDRAISING WORKSHOP
with Anthony Bennett and Mark Waugh of A Foundation.
[These are some nuggets of wisdom received during the above session. More helpful, personally, was the one-to-one session I had with Anthony, but that’s very specific to me, so I’m not going to relay all of that here. The points below are paraphrasing, not quotations and may not make perfect sense – I was there, I know what I’m talking about and in what context. Any questions, expansions needed, just ask.]
It is small kindnesses that make the art world go round, but be careful that giving these does not turn into an exploitation, i.e. it is good to be generous, but capitulating too readily doesn’t do you any good.
Make sure the expectations of both parties (funder/commissioner and you) are laid out and understood, then bad feeling is less likely to arise.
Funding is like a business contract – read the small print, know what’s expected.
If you are business-like, know your budget, timescale, materials, transport etc and what the project will demand, people will be more likely to believe in your ability to deliver.
There is the potential to use funding to fit your project e.g. if you are doing something with new technology and NASA have grants, but don’t get into the situation where grants and opportunities shape your work. You need to retain a core truth about your work for others to want to invest in and understand what you do.
You can recycle some parts of applications, but each one is different and must be considered carefully, Think about the foreground/background of each one, put information about what is the most important in the foreground.
CLARITY in applications. What you are offering, what your interests are, what the outcome will be, what you will gain from it. Make these things clear.
COMMUNICATION – If you do receive funding/support in kind, keep your people happy be keeping in touch with press, developments, images etc. Provide a bit of return of their investment and follow this up – how you have developed since for example.
Public engagement can take many forms, so think creatively about how people will best engage with the work rather than trying to fulfil ACE guidelines anywhichway.
Be honest with yourself. Make sure the project is genuinely useful to you before investing your (and others) time in funding applications.
Funding and assembling projects requires a holistic approach. It’s not a case of making your work and sticking the event or public interaction on afterwards, it can all be important and useful.
