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News articles for June 2009
Giving to the arts matters now more than ever
Ronel Lehmann, chief executive of Lehmann Communications
The dawn of the Noughties coincided with the birth of Corporate Social Responsibility, and as the boom times rolled, so the term CSR became ingrained in the conscience of Europe’s Big Business. The realisation that corporate giving made sense as a way of engaging with local communities, motivating staff, and improving brand identity finally began to take hold. Now it is under threat.
In tougher times the budgets for worthy causes are being shaved, and the arts in particular are finding it tougher than ever to get support. Just as the capital’s cleaners and nannies are suffering from the trickle-down effect, so too are charities in London, across the UK, and worldwide. I believe the opposite should be the case – charities’ funds are being stretched like never before, and savvy businesses realise now, more than ever, the need to keep staff busy and stimulated, and to keep clients on board.
Michael Lynch, the outgoing chief of the Southbank Centre in London, recently hit out at the inhabitants of the Square Mile for failing to support the arts through their CSR programmes. Describing the wealthy as “a bunch of bastards” for refusing to cough up for the centre’s refurbishment, Mr Lynch highlighted just how bad relations between those in need and their potential donors have become.
As a governor of The City of London School, my experience has been entirely different from Mr Lynch’s. Following a well researched and targeted presentation to Brian Winterflood, a City grandee with a 50-year pedigree at the forefront of this country’s securities industry, we found him willing to make a substantial contribution to the refurbishment of the school’s theatre.
The project cost £1.3 million and Mr Winterflood’s funding was matched by the City of London Corporation. The result is a recently-unveiled facility for the capital’s kids, with a theatre available not only to our pupils but also to the local catchment area, including amateur dramatics societies and corporate institutions.
The Winterflood Theatre is an example of City philanthropy in action. On a larger scale, another example is the astonishing work of Christopher Cooper-Hohn, the chairman and founder of hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI). Recently revealed as the biggest charity donor in the UK, Hohn’s Children’s Investment Fund Foundation last year received £462m from the profits and investments of his hedge fund, with its projects including a partnership with the Gates Foundation aimed at alleviating malnutrition.
Businesses look for a return on their investments, and where CSR programmes really deliver is when they meet the needs of both the donor and the recipient. CSR, when it was first in vogue and affordable, was about employee and client engagement, improving the corporate image, and, to a certain extent of course, benefitting the bottom line. Giving to the arts can help fuel staff imagination, raise morale, and add purpose to client entertainment events. What Mr Lynch has drawn attention to is the need for arts leaders to educate potential donors about these upsides, and to tailor their fundraising projects to supporters’ needs.
The problem for donors always comes in choosing the cause to back. Sometimes those decisions are taken at board level, others ask staff to vote on shortlists of proposed recipients, and a few rely on personal relationships between individuals and good causes.
However such decisions are reached, the buy-in of the whole business to a CSR initiative or a fundraising programme has never been more important. There will always be snipers who criticise giving as their colleagues lose their jobs, and to avoid those negative comments gaining traction, the aims of initiatives must be fully explained and supported.
A charity called Heart of the City helps businesses learn from one another about voluntary and community programmes that can deliver on objectives. Amongst its clients who do support the arts in the UK are Ernst & Young, sponsor of the Maharaja exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and UBS, a major supporter of the Tate.
Arts & Business estimates that, in London alone, private investment in culture totalled £477.5 million last year. That impressive figure will only increase, regardless of the economic environment, if arts leaders everywhere start to focus their creative prowess on educating and engaging with Big Business.
We are not surrounded by a “bunch of bastards”, but by many who just don’t know how, or why, they should get involved.
Ronel Lehmann is a Governor of the City of London School and Chairman of the Demelza Capital Appeal
June 2009