Catalyst
What is Catalyst?
Catalyst is the new £100m culture sector wide private giving investment programme aimed at helping cultural organisations diversify their income streams and access more funding from private sources. The new programme is made up of investment from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Catalyst offers organisations the opportunity to move their fundraising and development expertise on to the next level, whatever their current starting point. Through all strands of the Catalyst initiative, we aim to attract creative and innovative applications that will test a range of fundraising approaches, from bottom-up audience development and other fundraising techniques, to the development, for those who are ready, of an endowment fund.
The programmes are
Catalyst: endowments
Applications are now closed
Important notice: Applicant notifications date change
We originally advised applicants that they would receive notification of the outcome of their applications by 31 March 2012. However, we are coordinating the Catalyst: endowments decision making process with a number of stakeholders, including Heritage Lottery Fund, DCMS and the external Advisory Panel – which has added two weeks to our published timeline. In addition all of the organisations involved are restricted by Cabinet Office guidelines on making public announcements in the weeks approaching local government and Mayoral elections, which this year will be held on 3 May 2012. This means that we’ll now let you know of our decision soon after the elections in May 2012.
As a result, successful applicants will start the three years of their Catalyst activity from the date of the funding agreement, not from 1 April 2012. Relationship Managers can discuss the timetable with you in May.
If you have any queries please contact our enquiries team on 0845 300 6200 or at enquiries@artscouncil.org.uk
There will be a second round of the Catalyst: endowments programme for heritage organisations throughout the UK at the end of 2012, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The application deadline will be announced later this year. For further information on past or future rounds please visit the Heritage Lottery Fund website.
Catalyst: endowments is a £55m culture sector wide scheme funded jointly by the DCMS, Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. It offers match funding for the purpose of building a new endowment fund, or increasing an existing one.
Applicants may make a single application to this fund between £500,000 and £5m, to be matched by new fundraising at different ratios dependent on the amount for which the applicant applies. Applicants into this scheme are expected to be experienced fundraisers and must additionally demonstrate the financial management expertise needed to manage an endowment.
Arts awards will be considered by Arts Council England. Heritage awards will be considered by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Applications are open to all types of heritage organisation across the UK.
An independent Advisory Panel chaired by Michael Portillo will assist with the assessment process and make recommendations back to the relevant funding body on awards to organisations based in England.
The deadline for applications for this scheme was 16 January 2012 and decisions will be announced at the end of March.
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Catalyst Arts: capacity building and match funding scheme
Applications closed 31 March 2012
The £30 million Catalyst Arts: capacity building and match funding scheme will support organisations in building their fundraising capacity and capability over a three-year period. Grants of between £120,000 and £240,000 have been awarded to 173 organisations.
The three-year timescale recognises that changing the way organisations work and generating a continuous flow of new sources of funding will take time. We are investing in organisations committed to making a step-change in their approach to fundraising so that they become more financially and organisationally resilient. Our aim is to help the arts sector to attract new money now and in the longer term to be invested in additional artistic activity.
Organisations will use funds in the first year to gear up resources and build capacity. In the second and third years, funding will increasingly be used as match funding to incentivise donations. Organisations who applied to this scheme were expected to have some experience in fundraising and show commitment to wanting to raise their game in this area.
We received over 350 applications to the scheme. Find out more about Catalyst Arts: capacity building and match funding awards on the Arts Council website.
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Catalyst Arts and Catalyst Heritage fundraising capacity building grants
Arts
This strand of the Catalyst scheme aims to support arts organisations with little or no fundraising experience who would like to build their fundraising capacity and capability to attract new donors and strengthen their financial resilience to enhance their artistic output or engagement with the public.
We intended to open a fundraising and capacity building scheme on 1 April 2012, however, the proposed activity set out in the applications to the Catalyst endowments and Capacity building schemes is telling us more about how organisations can develop their fundraising and development activities. We think therefore it makes sense to look again at how our investment can best support organisations with little or no fundraising experience in light of this information. We also want to review our approach once funding decisions for the Catalyst endowments and Catalyst capacity building and match funding are known, so that we can make sure this third strand of activity is complementary to the other two.
We will use this learning and evidence base to refine our approach to fundraising and capacity building support for the sector, and are aiming to launch the next stage of our organisational resilience work in Autumn 2012.
Arts organisations who are not in the National portfolio are reminded that they may wish to consider making an application to Grants for the arts for organisational development to support resilience and business development.
Heritage
This strand of the Catalyst scheme aims to support heritage organisations with little or no fundraising experience who would like to build their fundraising capacity and capability to attract new donors and strengthen their financial resilience to enhance their heritage activities or engagement with the public.
More information on Heritage fundraising capacity building grants will be available soon.
Catalyst: endowments Advisory Panel
Catalyst: endowments Advisory Panel
The Advisory Panel will review applications for the Catalyst: endowments schemes from Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund. The panel members were selected on the basis of their knowledge of culture, finance and philanthropy.
Chair
Michael Portillo
Michael Portillo was a Member of Parliament for nearly 20 years and was in the Cabinet 1992-7. In 2008 he chaired the Man Booker Prize judging panel and in 2011 he chaired the panel of the Art Fund Prize. He is chairman of the Federation of British Artists.
Panel members
- David Verey CBE, Chairman of the Trustees of the Art Fund and DCMS lead non-executive director
- John Studzinski, investor, philanthropist and senior director at private equity firm Blackstone
- Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair, Heritage Lottery Fund
- Hilary Lade, Trustee, Heritage Lottery Fund
- Roger De Haan, philanthropist and creator of Saga group of companies
- Dame Liz Forgan, Chair, Arts Council England
- Veronica Wadley, member of National Council for Arts Council England and Chair, London Regional Arts Council
Meeting dates
The panel will meet three times, on the following dates:
- 23 February 2012
- 24 February 2012
- 13 March 2012
Please note: The Advisory Panel reserves the right to ask applicants to attend a meeting to deliver a brief presentation on their application. We will notify applicants by email by 14 February 2012 if attendance is required.
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