Our annual series of professional development events provides artists and arts organisations with access to expertise and bestpractice from Australia and around the world. These activities build a more knowledgeable, confident and sustainable arts sector by supporting the arts fundraising profession and inspiring an all of organisation approach to securing private sector support.

In late 2019, Creative Partnerships Australia launched the digitalsuite of our popular Fundamentals of Arts Fundraising workshops, providing greater access to fundraisers from communities across Australia and enhancing the capacity of emerging regional fundraisers. The videos provided a valuable accompaniment to the continued in-person delivery of the Fundamentals of Arts Fundraising workshops in capital cities and regional areas across Australia, reinforcing these workshops as a vital professional development resource for the sector.

We continued to bring international expertise to the Australian sector through our national masterclasses series, hosting globally renowned UK fundraising expert Patricia Castanha in her masterclass, Stewardship: Creating Relationships for Life. The sessions promoted an all of organisation approach to stewardship and gave arts professionals across Australia a toolkit of insights and tactics to embed in their organisation’s fundraising strategy.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the delivery of our events program from March 2020 was revised to comply with social distancing requirements, which moved several of our in-person events to a digital format. We prioritised topics that were most useful to the sector and launched our first Fundamentals of Arts Fundraising workshop in an online format, alongside increased professional development webinars to continue supporting the fundraising sector during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Events

Fundamentals of Arts Fundraising | Workshop
Where: Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Nowra, Perth, Sydney
Attendees: 179

Fundamentals of Arts Fundraising | Online Workshop
Where: Hunter Region
Attendees: 20

Successful Fundraising: Your Board and the Path to Glory with Karen Brooks-Hopkins | Presentation
Where: Adelaide
Attendees: 22

Fundraising to Support Your Artistic Vision with Karen Brooks-Hopkins | Presentation
Where: Adelaide
Attendees: 34

Introducing Creative Partnerships Australia with Este Darin-Cooper | Presentation
Where: Orange
Attendees: 25

Stewardship: Creating Relationships for Life Masterclass with Patricia Castanha | Masterclass
Where: Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney
Attendees: 126

Return on Fundraising Investment with Tiffany Lucas | Webinar
Where: Online
Attendees: 97

Philanthropy and the Arts: During and Post-COVID-19 with JB Were | Webinar
Where: Online
Attendees: 121

In addition to events hosted and produced by Creative Partnerships Australia, staff were guest presenters at 24 industry sector events, forums and conferences, facilitating networking activities with CEOs, boards, fundraising staff and the local philanthropic community.

Partnerships

Creative Partnerships Australia worked with organisations across the not-for-profit and arts sectors in 2019/20, partnering on programs and events that amplified our capacity to facilitate and celebrate private sector support for the arts.

In November 2019, Agenda held its global arts fundraising conference, Culture Business Sydney, which, brought together arts leaders from around the world to tackle important questions facing fundraising and development professionals. As principal partner, Creative Partnerships Australia provided support for 20 development professionals to attend the conference to increase their fundraising knowledge and connect with professionals in the sector.

The conference theme, The Art of Fundraising, saw speakers present on philanthropy, corporate sponsorship, organisational structure and new revenue streams. Creative Partnerships Australia gave a keynote presentation on the findings of Giving Attitude, Australia’s first sector-wide survey and reporton private sector support for the arts. Attended by 187 arts professionals, the two-day conference featured international speakers including Natasha Harris, Director of Development, The Old Vic (UK); Darin Conlet-Buchsieb, Human Resources Director and Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, San Francisco Ballet (USA); Rikke Sanderhoff Mørch, Head of Communication, Natural History Museum of Denmark (Denmark); Gretchen Coss, Senior Associate and Director of Business Development, Gallagher Museum Services (USA); and Guillaume Marechal, Head of Strategic Development, Media and Commercial Partnerships, City of Paris (France).

This year we formed a new partnership with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, offering six early-to-mid career arts fundraisers a place at the council’s major residential conference, the Asia Pacific Institute in Educational Fundraising. The conference offered interactive sessions on a range of development topics including annual and regular giving, major gifts, bequests and legacies, campaigns, stewardship, ethics, effective prospect research and making a case for support.

We continued to support Philanthropy Australia in engaging speakers for its Arts Funders Network sessions. These meetings were a valuable opportunity for members of the philanthropic sector to share insights on delivering high-impact philanthropy to the arts and cultural sector.

In partnership with Adelaide Festival and Festivals Adelaide, we facilitated one of the world’s leading arts philanthropy and fundraising experts, US-based Karen Brooks-Hopkins, to present two workshops, Successful Fundraising: Your Board and the Path to Glory and Fundraising to Support Your Artistic Vision. Held during the festival, these workshops explored the importance of board recruitment, leadership and success in fundraising and tactical advice as a leader in arts fundraising.

In response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on small to medium arts organisations, we partnered with Fit Sponsorship Group to deliver the Arts Business Partnerships Support Program. This online program provides tailored coaching and advice on partnerships, crisis planning, and revenue and growth to 11 organisations and will continue into 2020/21.

Creative Partnerships Australia subsidised the cost of 30 arts fundraisers to attend the virtual Generosity Forum, presented by Fundraising & Philanthropy. The webcast program featured speakers from across Australia discussing philanthropic best practices and connecting attendees with development changemakers. Creative Partnerships Australia’s State Manager for Western Australia presented on recent global research on the growth and impact of community-level collective giving.

Throughout the year, we continued to support Australia’s arts development collectives, sector- driven professional development groups that promote peer-to-peer learning in the arts fundraising community. We provided financial support to these state-based groups to present a variety of local learning opportunities to their fundraising community, bringing development professionals together to share experiences and discuss ideas.

Online Programs and Resources

Online programs and resources support Creative Partnerships Australia’s sector development strategy, complementing in- person events and workshops held throughout the year to further enhance the skills of arts fundraisers.

We published more than 55 tools and resources on the Creative Partnerships Australia and Australian Cultural Fund websites in 2019/20, including guides, videos, fact sheets, case studies and blog posts. With topics ranging from crowdfunding techniques, the latest in private sector support and diversity in fundraising, these resources identify and encourage best practice in arts fundraising.

To increase accessibility to our popular Fundamentals of Arts Fundraising workshops, we launched the digital suite of this program on the Creative Partnerships Australia website in November 2019. Featuring eight Australian arts fundraising and development professionals, the video resources provide a comprehensive overview of the principles of arts fundraising for development professionals of all levels. The launch of these resources led to a 360% increase in online engagement within the first 24 hours of their release.

While we value the opportunity that face-to-face skills development programs provide arts, philanthropic and business sectors to build relationships and share knowledge, it is vital that this be supported with a bank of online resources that reach across Australia. The importance of online resources was highlighted as the impact of COVID-19 was felt across the sector. In response, we increased our digital output of online workshops and programs, using online analytics and community surveys to determine the content of online resources to ensure our content remained relevant.