Trusts, Foundations and philanthropists - "Grant Giving Bodies" - play a significant role in the UK's creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem. At a time when pressure on budgets are up and investments in the ecosystem are down, Grant Giving Bodies are often stepping in to plug the gaps. Many are already thinking deeply about how devolution and distributed decision-making processes might impact on them and the organisations they support.
For some, this looks like increasingly strategic conversations with local and combined authorities about co-investments. For others, it's investing in programmes that support innovative citizen-led decision making at the local level. For others still, getting a better understanding of where cultural infrastructures are distributed across the country to inform investments is a potential new area of interest. What's abundantly clear is that Grant Giving Bodies will help shape the way in which cultural devolution rolls out across the four UK nations from here.
This new Insight Paper lays out a variety of perspectives from some of the UK’s biggest Grant Giving Bodies shared with us at a special roundtable co-convened by Culture Commons, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) and Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of a major four UK nations open policy development programme.
A series of recommendations about Grant Giving Bodies, as well as a range of other ecosystem stakeholder groups, will be shared at an online conference on 5th Nov: book your place now if you'd like hear more about the future of cultural devolution in the UK.
Trevor MacFarlane FRSA, Director, Culture Commons, said:
“This very special roundtable brought together some major contributors to our sectors - we're lucky to have been able to bring them together in this way. It was particularly significant to hear that Grant Giving Bodies don't simply want to become 'funders of last resort' for under resourced local authorities and sectors - they really want to co-invest alongside places and programmes where they feel confident their contributions can really add value. Getting local authorities moved onto multi-year settlements was thrown up as just one measure that could give that confidence, but also things like local authorities having clear cultural strategies and officers dedicated to relevant portfolios came up."
This Insight Paper forms part of a major four-nations open policy development programme led by Culture Commons and a coalition of 30 organisations from across the UK investigating how devolution and increased local decision making might impact on our creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem.
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