It’s no secret that almost everyone in the Australian arts sector is devoting more time than ever to strategic philanthropy and fundraising activities.
For some, this elevated focus on philanthropy is not so much a voluntary strategic choice, but rather a response to their existing funders encouraging them to diversify their revenue streams and achieve what they see as a more sustainable future for the sector as a whole.
Evidence of this can be seen in the Federal Government’s recently established parliamentary inquiry into arts and cultural philanthropy. Its committee has been meeting since February this year in order to consult with a range of arts organisations and foundations – including the National Association for the Visual Arts, Ausdance, Performance Space, La Mama Theatre, The Balnaves Foundation and Minderoo Foundation.
ArtsHub: Can these parliamentarians supercharge philanthropic giving to the arts?
As part of this inquiry, arts executives and companies have expressed differing views around the best policies the sector needs to help everyone up their game in the philanthropy space.
What follows is a summary view of some of the pertinent advice being offered to government via submissions to the inquiry, focusing on what some see as philanthropists’ core motivations for giving.
Understanding arts philanthropists – quick links
Donors want trust and public impact
In its submission to the arts and cultural philanthropy inquiry, the nation’s largest publicly-funded art gallery – the National Gallery of Australia – outlined the basic principles behind its recent success with its philanthropic donors.
As its Director Nick Mitzevich describes, donations to NGA’s Foundation, which is the largest of the gallery’s multiple fundraising mechanisms, have ‘increased consistently over the past five years, with the last two years representing unprecedented growth’.
The Director notes that NGA secured fundraising income of $26.8 million in 2024-25 – comprising $9.7 million in cash donations and $17.1 million in gifts of works of art.
Mitzevich credits the NGA’s success to its capacity to offer donors ‘opportunities to contribute to projects of ambition with clear, enduring pubic impact’.
Interestingly, he also prioritises ‘trust in leadership and institutional vision’ as a key part of gallery’s strategic approach to growing its donor base.
ArtsHub: $2 million bequest for dance sector is ‘truly unprecedented’ (2022)
As he explains, ‘philanthropy is fundamentally relational’ – signalling the gallery’s strategic investment in building strong relationships with its donors while also ensuring trust is created around NGA’s high value brand and ‘institutional vision’ as a leading public art gallery and the custodian of Australia’s largest art collection.
Also, as Mitzevich describes, managing these relationships requires support. The Director credits the NGA’s Council, its Foundation Board members, its Private Giving and Corporate Management team members and its senior gallery staff as playing key roles ‘in advancing [the gallery’s] philanthropic vision and widening [its] circle of influence’.
Philanthropy needs strong relationships and high public awareness of need
Evidently, successful arts fundraising is built on firm relationships with donors who can see exactly how their money will have meaningful (and often very specific) public impact.
But as observed by NAVA Executive Director Penelope Benton in her appearance at the arts philanthropy parliamentary inquiry in May, when it comes to the capacity of artists and companies at all levels of the sector to build these relationships and make that case for public impact, at the moment, the landscape is ‘unfair and unequal’.
In her statement, Benton described her concern that while major arts and cultural institutions have the necessary fundraising resources and staff costs built-in to their business models, smaller organisations and independent artists are not resourced in the same way, and therefore find it ‘much harder, if not impossible’ to seek out and secure philanthropic support.
Similarly, in the submission made by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, MCA Director Suzanne Cotter and Development Director Samantha Luck observe that ‘public awareness of cultural giving remains low’ – which they see as part of the stagnancy around philanthropic arts giving in general across the country.
To ameliorate the situation, the MCA suggests the government back a ‘national campaign [which] could incentivise cultural giving, highlight its impact … and encourage participation across all demographics’.
One could argue the Federal Government is already active in this space with the launch of its inaugural AusArt Day in 2025, with the next event slated for October this year. Yet one could also argue the mixed results achieved by AusArt Day’s first participants, and its failure to so far achieve a significant national profile, are current limitations to this specific initiative.
Regardless of how any government body or policy decides to support public awareness-raising and arts giving campaigns, as Creative Australia Development and Partnership Manager (Western Australia) James Boyd advises, ‘The top two reasons philanthropists haven’t supported your arts project or activity [yet], is that number one, they don’t know you need the money, and number two, they haven’t been asked’.
These key insights, taken together with the MCA’s parliamentary inquiry submission, suggest it’s high time for the sector to turn up the volume around the collective need for increased levels of arts philanthropy – especially donations to small, less visible arts companies, organisations and individual artists.
Philanthropy is a generous act – and we give to where the love is
Another effective way to strengthen your shot at securing high-value donor dollars is to recognise that philanthropists – as distinct from sponsors or funding partners – aren’t focused on seeing a financial return on their investment, other than knowing their money is having a collective or public impact.
As Creative Australia’s James Boyd points out, ultimately, philanthropic giving is a heartfelt thing.
‘Arts philanthropist are fundamentally motivated by interest and impact,’ he tells ArtsHub.
‘Any generous person giving to the arts wishes to make a difference and see change for good in a form that they feel is important – from access and education to seeing advances in the art itself, or the blossoming of creative careers.
‘Essentially, it has to be a joyous thing,’ he says.
Similarly, the Director of Philanthropy at Queensland Ballet, Rachael Walsh, has observed the way donors’ strong emotional connection to the art – both on and off the stage – plays a huge role in their willingness to give.
‘I see donors who understand that their support nurtures emerging artists, enables ambitious new productions, provides access for young people, and creates moments of joy and connection for audiences from every walk of life,’ Walsh says.
‘Perhaps most importantly, arts philanthropists recognise that culture doesn’t thrive by chance,’ she continues.
‘It flourishes because visionary people choose to invest in it. Their generosity is an act of optimism and leadership.’
Tax incentives and matched schemes also key to good policy
That said, for some arts leaders currently engaging in the Federal Government’s consultation process on arts philanthropy, it’s clear that while capturing donors’ hearts and minds is part of the story, financial incentives and effective government policy settings also play an important role.
As articulated by TarraWarra Museum of Art in its parliamentary inquiry submission, co-funded and matched funding schemes (between donors and government bodies) can go a long way in securing philanthropic support.
As its submission argues, ‘donors in Australia like to feel that they are co-partnering or co-funding with government to support arts and culture’ and ‘one of the biggest disincentives for [their] giving is when [they] feel they are being asked to fill a gap when government funding is withdrawn’.
ArtsHub: New philanthropy models bringing in much needed funding (2024)
Similarly, Belvoir St Theatre’s submission encourages the inquiry to look to the UK’s Big Give arts-giving campaign model, which allows UK arts organisations to receive matched funding support for every dollar raised from philanthropic foundations and corporates during a set period of time.
Also, as noted by various companies in their submissions, there continues to be a range of administrative complexities and policy barriers impeding arts donors’ giving pathways.
Some strategies put forward by these companies to overcome the current issues include:
- Making Deductible Giving Recipient (DGR) status more accessible to small companies who lack the infrastructure to currently apply
- Increasing the tax deduction that donors to DGR arts entities are eligible to receive
- Reducing the complexity of the donor process to make charitable bequests through superannuation
- Better aligning the Federal Government’s Cultural Gifts Program with other self-assessment based tax incentive models to reduce the administrative burden on both donors and gift recipients.
