Any other business: Why ‘the year of corporate giving’ to the arts was never going to happen

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s declaration that 2011 would be ‘the year of corporate giving’ to the arts was never likely to be fulfilled, given how tough it is to stay in business these days. Trying to shift the onus on to companies to replace cuts in state arts funding was an obvious political manoeuvre, but it comes as no surprise that the total of corporate giving (according to the Arts & Business consultancy) is down 20 per cent from its 2007 peak, to £134 million. That compares with a record £382 million from individuals — a healthy 6 per cent up on 2010 after two years of decline. If there’s a surprise in these figures, it is that 30 per cent of FTSE 100 companies still support the arts at all. As for major donors, most are international banks and another is BP: corporate sinners hoping to redeem their public profiles.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for sponsorship of the arts from every available source and have spent a good part of the past 20 years trying to raise it. But shareholders are right to expect a return — in terms of image-building that makes potential customers feel warmer towards their products — on money given to the arts that might have been spent on machine tools. Long gone are the days of bosses’ boxes at the opera as a standard perk and competitive status symbol. But those same bosses and shareholders as individuals have a duty of philanthropy which is an integral part of the capitalist deal: by all means reap the rewards of risk and responsibility, but share them around. You don’t have to be rich-listed to ask yourself how much you could give away without affecting your lifestyle or jeopardising your family obligations. The answer might be quite a lot.