Arts and Culture Fundraising Benchmark Report and Dashboard
Sarah Thelwall
MyCake and Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy have launched a free online benchmarking dashboard using publicly-accessible data from all organisations who are part of the Arts Council England NPO (National Portfolio Organisation).
The purpose of the Cause4 Arts and Culture Fundraising Benchmark is to support the leaders and trustees of organisations to compare and contrast their current performance to that of their peers. This web-based dashboard, together with a newly published report, provides insights, data and tools to undertake this analysis.
This new version of the benchmark includes the latest data for 2018/19, covering 801 organisations in the ACE national portfolio. Where possible, this includes trend data for a more extended four-year period. Data on volunteering and assets complement data covering income, expenditure, fundraising and financial resilience.
The free online dashboard allows organisations to choose their own criteria and data points, to filter the data and compare it to the national cohort, as well as to any other tailored comparison groups that are relevant. It is also possible to compare individual data with the appropriate regions, art forms and turnover bands, with the ability to export data and run reports in a variety of formats.
Alongside the online dashboard is the publication of the Key Findings of the Cause4 Arts and Culture Fundraising Benchmark report.
Covid-19 has subsequently changed the operating environment for arts and culture organisations. It has also changed the fundraising and income generation landscape. Nevertheless, the benchmark data here remains a relevant starting point for performance analysis and strategy development, whether it is understanding how your organisation compares to leaders in any given field of income generating activity, or reviewing the cost-effectiveness of your expenditure by comparison to your peers.