"I've given more to the performing arts than Bill Gates" : UK arts funding and activity in context. Part 1: private

[Mike Gibb, Operabase]

I have been working on some figures comparing international performing arts activity and funding. Let's start with private funding. How much is there? How does that compare with other countries? How much could there be in the future? How successful could private funding be in the future?

When there are any discussions on private philanthropy, it is generally in comparison against the touch-stone of the system in the United States. Certainly, it has been much mentioned in the UK in the current discussions over the future of culture funding. The USA will be one of our reference points.

The role of philanthropy, and its position in the US and Germany, was touched on, in rather robust terms, in Der Speigel's international version a fortnight ago: German Millionaires Criticize Gates' 'Giving Pledge'. Two claims are made in the article .. that many subjects of US philanthropy were better addressed by the State, and that many German philanthropists had been more generous than their American counterparts. Germany will be our second reference point.

Private giving, by its very nature, is a matter for individuals (whether private citizens or members of the boards of companies or foundations). It is completely legitimate and natural that these decisions are made on the basis of perceived return on investment, peer respect, fashion, etc rather than any 'big picture' of what needs/deserves to be supported. There can be some marked skews in the final proportions when these effects of these individual decisions are summed...

The annual survey of US philanthropy, Giving USA, from the Center on Philanthropy published the 2009 figures in June of this year.
The total amount given was estimated as 303bn USD, but just 4% of this went to bodies identified as "arts, culture and humanities" organisations. The still very respectable figure of 12.34bn USD represents an average of 39.82 USD per capita.

Figures for philanthropy in the US are more accurate, more precise and easier to find than figures for countries which don't offer clear tax benefits on giving. In the UK, Arts and Business is the (government-supported but independent) body for connecting companies and individuals that have money/time/expertise to cultural organisations seeking those things. Arts and Business produced a report, Private Investment in Culture 2008/09, which tell us that the UK figure for private giving to culture for this period was 654m GBP (1.04bn USD, equivalent to a per capita investment of 16.77 USD).

The position in Germany is rather interesting. In 2007, the German government set up a commission of enquiry to look into the state of culture. The resulting report, 'Kultur in Deutschland', included some maximum and minimum estimates for the contribution of private funding. (Breakdown here on the MIZ site, in German). The minimum total figure for private funding of culture in Germany was 0.8bn EUR, and the maximum was 2.6bn EUR. The range is big, but the figures are also big in absolute terms: 1.06bn to 3.45bn USD (12.97 to 42.23 USD per capita)

In thinking about current levels of private giving, and the potential for increasing them, we should view these figures taking into account their 'cost' in each country. I've used the purchasing power parity version of GDP, because it was easy to find.

Country	private arts investment	as USD(1)	Pop(2)	private arts investment per capita	GDP(PPP) per capita (2)	Private arts investment as % of GDP	ditto, with USA=100
United States	12.34bn USD(3)	$12.34bn	309.9m	$39.82	$46,381	0.085	100.0
Germany(max)	2.60bn EUR(4)	$3.45bn	81.7m	$42.23	$34,212	0.123	144.7
Germany(min)	0.80bn EUR(4)	$1.06bn	,,	$12.97	,,	0.038	44.7
United Kingdom	0.654bn GBP(5)	$1.04bn	62.0m	$16.77	$35,082	0.048	56.5

(1) Exchange rates taken from xe.com on 2010-08-07
(1.0GBP=1.5945USD=1.20EUR; 1.0EUR=0.833GBP=1.328USD; 1.0USD=0.753EUR=0.627GBP)

(2) Wikipedia pages for the individual countries

(3) 2009 figures for the 'Arts/Culture/Humanities' sector.
Source: Giving USA, at the Center on Philanthropy
http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/news/2010/06/pr-GUSA2010.aspx

(4) Source: 'Kultur in Deutschland' (2007), reported on the MIZ page
http://miz.org/kennzahlen.html#musikfinanzierung-u-foerderung

(5) Source: Private Investment in Culture 2008/09
Arts and Business
http://www.artsandbusiness.org.uk/Central/Research/Investment-and-f...


Some observations:

• Germany, even at the minimum level, has given more money to culture than the UK in absolute terms.
• At the maximum level, it has given more to culture per capita than the US.
• On terms of 'generosity', (amount given as a percentage of GDP = pain suffered by donor), the UK currently gives at the rate of 56% of the US. (100% would be 1.157bn, an extra 503bn a year)

What percentage of the UK culture budget is 503bn? Now, that's an interesting question ...

[Patrick Hussey]

Open publication - Free publishing - More arts

[Mike Gibb, Operabase]

Patrick, I hope that you included this to save people clicking on the links above. It won't work as an answer to the question "What percentage of the UK culture budget is 503m?" (or the implied question "what IS the cultural spend in the UK?"). I have spoken to a score of people about sources for cultural data, and this includes Tina Mermiri, the author of the A&B report about that data. The figures for the public spend (or spend from sources other than the private) are a combination of the (few) readily available figures, and guess-timates made from assuming certain proportions in other data. It's there merely to provide some context to the subject of the report -- the private funding -- and no more.

One of the few sources that I have found for a carefully researched estimate of total cultural spends comes from the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research, which publishes an annual set of statistics for the cultural field. According to 2008 figures, the UK's total spend on culture is comparatively low, at 8.833bn EUR (which ranks it 12th in Europe on a per-capita basis, ahead of Slovenia and just behind Latvia).

This figure of 8.833bn is about twice the figure implied in the A&B report.

 

[Patrick Hussey]

Nope not an answer at all, just a resource for people to look at if interested by your ref to PICS.

Mike Gibb, Operabase said:

Patrick, I hope that you included this to save people clicking on the links above. It won't work as an answer to the question "What percentage of the UK culture budget is 503m?" (or the implied question "what IS the cultural spend in the UK?"). I have spoken to a score of people about sources for cultural data, and this includes Tina Mermiri, the author of the A&B report about that data. The figures for the public spend (or spend from sources other than the private) are a combination of the (few) readily available figures, and guess-timates made from assuming certain proportions in other data. It's there merely to provide some context to the subject of the report -- the private funding -- and no more.

One of the few sources that I have found for a carefully researched estimate of total cultural spends comes from the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research, which publishes an annual set of statistics for the cultural field. According to 2008 figures, the UK's total spend on culture is comparatively low, at 8.833bn EUR (which ranks it 12th in Europe on a per-capita basis, ahead of Slovenia and just behind Latvia).

This figure of 8.833bn is about twice the figure implied in the A&B report.