Latest Blog Posts

So you’re interested in coming on the National Arts Fundraising School and joining our elite Alumni of arts fundraisers at the top of their game… fantastic, we’d love to see you there. But just in case you need further convincing, here are 10 things you’ll personally get from the School.

Maybe the challenges you face are more regarding your own questions about the National Arts Fundraising School. Below we tackle some of the common ones.

Before you try to persuade someone to support your attendance at the School ask yourself five key questions. If you can answer ‘yes’ to most of these then you won’t benefit. If you answer ‘no’, then you definitely should come.

Before you try to persuade someone to support your attendance at the School ask yourself five key questions. If you can answer ‘yes’ to most of these then you won’t benefit. If you answer ‘no’, then you definitely should come.

With over 1,800 people trained through the National Arts Fundraising School over the past 30 years, the alumni network is an amazing source of advice, guidance and support when you leave the school.

Lucy McNally attended the National Arts Fundraising School in 2016, three years after joining LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) as Development Manager (Individual Giving). We caught up with her to find out what impact the School had.

One of our newest Alumni, Suzanne McLellan, Marketing and Audience Development Manager at The Gaiety Theatre in Ayr describes her experience on the School.

Today’s blog will be my final blog – because I feel like it sums up the whole week in one simple act. You may ask yourself – how quickly can the learning on NAFS be implemented? The answer? As quickly as you read that last sentence.

Day four at NAFS prepares our attendees for the all important pitch (if you know someone who has been on the course… ask them about the pitch task!) and our communications expert Jules Bellingham takes attendees through the part of the ‘ask’ that, ironically, we think about the least… the physical experience of it.

Company giving has had a lot of press lately: most recently an artist led campaign that meant BAE recalled their sponsorship of the Great Exhibition of the North – which means that cultural organisations have to consider whether they want to pursue corporate support at all, let alone how they want to go about it.

“One of the most powerful words in fundraising is ‘imagine’. Imagine if you could change this today. Imagine if you could stop this forever. Imagine if you could make this happen.” Day two at the National Arts Fundraising School kicks off with Director of the school, Bernard Ross, encouraging our attendees to re-imagine their own […]

Fresh from day one of the first of our 30th anniversary Schools in 2018, tutor Dana Segal shares her thoughts…

Lucy Blythe is one of the outstanding fundraisers of her generation – having held the most senior roles at a number of leading arts and cultural agencies including the RSA, The Victoria And Albert Museum and Kew Gardens. Across these agencies she has led a number of successful high-profile campaigns and projects.

Dana Segal, NAFS tutor and =mc Partner Consultant blogs on her experience at the Change for Good using Behavioural Economics seminar, and discusses how and why arts organisations should be looking to use these techniques in their fundraising.

It’s never been more important to invest in skills and knowledge about private fundraising in the arts. These are tough times.