AS FOLLOW UP TO £80M MATCH FUNDING SCHEME - CULTURE SECRETARY JEREMY HUNT WRITES TO FTSE 100

Extract from FT.com 

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Jeremy Hunt is writing to dozens of FTSE 100 chief executives asking for personal meetings in a drive to encourage Britain’s leading companies to invest in the arts and help offset culture budget cuts.

The culture secretary hopes his handwritten missives will succeed in coaxing at least a handful of the 60 FTSE 100 companies that do not currently give to the arts to change their minds.
The gentle pressure is part of Mr Hunt’s drive to make this a year of “corporate giving” by encouraging private companies to keep Britain’s arts sector alive.
“He will be telling the chief executives that arts funding can be a great way of building relationships in communities,” said one Whitehall source. “Arts tend to be an afterthought for many companies, but it can actually be a great way to build relationships.”
Simon Robey, an investment banker who advises companies such as Marks and Spencer and is also chairman of the Royal Opera House, said earlier this year that it was a “startling statistic” that only about a third of the FTSE 100 companies supported Britain’s arts.
Mr Hunt wants to add at least another 10 to the list by the time of the Olympic Games next year, and says it is entirely feasible that half of the FTSE will make such donations in the lifetime of this parliament.
Private sector input into the arts will be crucial in the coming months as arts bodies suffer the biggest budget cuts for 30 years in the government’s £81bn austerity programme.
Arts Council England will see its funding fall by 30 per cent and has announced that about 100 institutions will lose their grants.
Mr Hunt’s plea will go out to FTSE 100 companies that in many cases already have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes focusing on health, education and community projects......


..........Mr Hunt sees philanthropic donations – from rich individuals or companies – as a rich vein of funding to tap. Last year, he announced an £80m package (match funding) to boost private giving to the arts in a scheme that sees the culture department match every £1 of private funding raised by cash-strapped arts bodies.