Rebecca Williams, director of development, Tate

Rebecca Williams

We welcome the fresh approach to cultural philanthropy as articulated by the Secretary of State for Culture. The aspiration to strengthen the mixed economy in which the arts and culture in this country have thrived is one to which all of us would, I am sure, subscribe.

The government has a crucial role in encouraging giving in two principal ways:

• By encouraging individual and institutional giving as a public good and ensuring that those who give are properly acknowledged and their philanthropy publicly celebrated.
• By incentivising giving, through the revenue system and through other schemes which leverage increased giving, be they matched-funding or other initiatives.

The secretary of state’s Action Plan includes a number of points which relate to the first of those roles - of all of them, perhaps the most important is the commitment to encourage and give greater public recognition to philanthropy. It is crucial that such recognition is given in ways which celebrate and are relevant to all givers, at whatever level, to whatever cause – a point it is good to see made in the government’s Green Paper on Giving.

The establishment of the £80m matched giving scheme, as a mechanism to stimulate and incentivise giving in line with the second of the government’s key roles, is to be welcomed. The evidence from other countries, as well as here in the UK from the higher education sector’s matched funding scheme and initiatives like the Big Give, is that incentives do make a difference. We all like to feel that our support is leveraging more. We await further details of the new scheme but it is reassuring to hear that it is likely to be structured in such a way that the different circumstances of organisations, and their consequent ability to raise funds, are acknowledged.

However, the element of government-led incentivisation which is critical, and to which the secretary of state’s Action Plan did not refer, is that which is effected through the tax system.

Any effort to encourage charitable giving must consider tax incentives. This is a complex area, and one in which different sections of the not-for-profit sector sometimes have different priorities. Within the cultural sector, I believe that the priorities are these: to extend tax relief to gifts of objects along with property and stocks and shares, to maintain and simplify the Gift Aid system, and to create a framework for tax-efficient charitable remainder trusts, or lifetime legacies.

The removal of the fixed cap of £500 on benefits which a charity can give to a donor in acknowledgement of a gift in favour of a 5% cap, would also support the Government’s drive to recognise philanthropy.

So the secretary of state’s Action Plan is an excellent first step. We look forward to hearing more from the government about how they intend to address this latter element of incentivisation as a critical element in effecting the cultural change in giving to which they are rightly committed.

Rebecca Williams
Rebecca Williams is director of development at Tate and is responsible for the comprehensive revenue and capital fundraising campaign in support of Tate’s vision to 2015 and beyond. Williams has more than fourteen years’ fundraising experience in the arts and education sectors and has previously worked in the fundraising teams at the Almeida Theatre and The Royal College of Art. She was director of development at King’s College, London, where she was responsible for the successful completion of the college’s first capital campaign.

Tate
Tel: +44 (0)20 7887 8945
Email: Rebecca.williams@tate.org.uk
Website: www.tate.org.uk