Its a given: Key findings

November 2011

Background
The Australia Council for the Arts has been monitoring the performance of the arts sector in attracting private sector support in different ways for some time. The purpose of this report is to track and analyse levels of private sector income of Australia Council funded key organisations1 for the years 2008 to 2010. It adapts the survey of major performing arts companies conducted by AMPAG2, hence complementing that surveys findings as well as the private sector support survey conducted by AbaF3.

Key findings
The key findings of this report are as follows: The audited financial statements of the 132 key organisations were used as the basis for the financial information. Of these 132 companies, 68 provided additional information relating to the number of sponsorships and donations received. The 132 key organisations received $60.7m in private sector income in 2010 of which $35.8m related to a one-off capital works fundraising campaign of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Total private sector income in 2010 (excluding the MCA capital works campaign) was $24.9m. There has been a modest increase in private sector income as a percentage of turnover. In 2010, private sector income made up 15 percent of total turnover4 of key organisations. In 2009, private sector made up 12 percent of total turnover. The distribution of private sector income was not even across key organisations. The top 10 private sector income generators make up 67 per cent of total revenue earned. Eighteen companies (14 percent) of 132 companies examined reported receiving no private sector at all in 2010. The $13.6m received as corporate sponsorship in 2010 made up 55 percent of total private sector income almost double 2009 levels.

A key organisation is an organisation that receives multi-year funding from an artform board. Key organisations exclude companies designated as Major Performing Arts companies. 2 The survey was conducted by Sue Procter for the Australia Council. She has adapted the survey that she conducts on behalf of AMPAG (Australian Major Performing Arts Group www.ampag.com.au) with their support and co-operation. 3 Australia Business Arts Foundation www.abaf.org.au 4 Total income

Much of the reported increase in corporate sponsorship was due to a $4.2m increase in in-kind support. In 2010, cash sponsorship increased $2.4m on 2009 levels. Private giving has remained steady, while corporate sponsorship has increased. In 2010, $10.7m was received as donations and/or foundation and trust support up 2.3 percent on 2009. Only three years of data have been examined in this inaugural report, making long-term trends difficult to accurately determine. Many of the reported fluctuations are due to a spike in earnings of single companies. Whether these spikes are part of the normal cycle of private sector giving/sponsorship for the sector or aberrant cannot be determined at this point. Some of the data spikes include: $1.6m increase in private sector support for South Australian companies is due to the inclusion of substantial in-kind support of a single company. The reported $1.7m drop in private sector support for Victorian companies is due to one Victorian company running a substantial fundraising campaign in 2008 to purchase a building. The recent surge in West Australian corporate sponsorship earnings is due to one company gaining very substantial corporate sponsorship support from a major mining company.

Noting that the underlying data may be affected by aberrant results of single companies, some possible trends that are emerging from the data include: WA companies are reporting the strongest growth in corporate sponsorship. They are however less successful in securing private giving. NSW companies receive the highest level of private giving at an average of $183k per company however have not been able to substantially lift earnings from this source since 2008. Private giving has declined for Victorian companies. Corporate sponsorship has remained at a low and static level. Companies from the Northern Territory receive the highest proportion of private giving from foundation and trusts (as opposed to individual donations). Visual arts companies dominate the results with the 40 participating companies making up $14.9m or 60 percent of the sector earnings. Dance, theatre and literature companies report significantly lower levels of private sector income compared to music, visual arts and, to a lesser extent, cross-artform companies. Music companies reported the lowest proportion of private giving from foundations and trusts. Seventy nine percent of private giving is received from individual donations for this artform.

Sixty eight companies provided data on the number of sponsorships/private givings secured: The number of sponsorship secured by the 68 key organisations has steadily increased since 2008. In 2010, these 68 companies reported securing 524 sponsorships. Despite the low level of corporate sponsorship income ($0.8m), Victorian companies reported the highest number of corporate sponsorships (150). Queensland also reported a relatively high number of sponsorships (127) to a low level of income ($0.5m). Their results contrast with NSW companies who reported raising $4.9m with 145 sponsorships. The number of donations/private givings reported by the 68 companies increased by 515 on 2009 level. In 2010, these 68 companies reported securing 2,677 donations/private givings. Music and theatre companies both reported relatively high numbers of donations/private givings (967 and 703 respectively) and relatively low income levels ($1.2m and $1.1m). These results contrast with the visual arts companies who reported raising $4.2m with 658 private givings.