Latest Blog Posts

hortly after she took up her first fundraising role at Birmingham Museums Trust, a promotional leaflet falling out of a magazine led Rachel Cockett to the National Arts Fundraising School at the exactly the right time. Find out how it gave her the skills and confidence to take the Trust to a whole new level of fundraising success.

This blog celebrates the journey of one of the UK’s most successful arts fundraisers – Marina Jones, Head of Trusts & Foundations at Royal Opera House. Read on to discover what she gained from the National Arts Fundraising School, and how it helped her achieve her fundraising goals.

When the National Arts Fundraising School (NAFS) opened it’s doors in 1988, Colin McKenzie was one of the first participants. Read about his fundraising journey since then and find out why he’s still benefitting from the programme, nearly 30 years after attending.

In the final part of the #5Myths of Arts & Culture Fundraising blog series by National Arts Fundraising School Director Bernard Ross, he touches on the use of behavioural economics in fundraising.

Part 4 of #5 : ‘Millennials’ – or Generation Y – is a general term for a demographic that includes anyone born from early 1980s to mid 1990s – a number of whom are now turning 30 or even closing on 40.

Third blog in the series of arts & culture fundraising Myths (#5Myths) by Bernard Ross. This time, crowdfunding…

Introducing the second blog from the 5 myths of arts & culture fundraising series (#5Myths) by Bernard Ross.

Bernard Ross, =mc & National Arts Fundraising School Director and fundraising expert speaks out on 5 fundraising myths in arts & culture that you need to address… Here’s a challenging graph. With some challenging information. And challenging implications. The question is, what do we do about the loss of public support since it’s unlikely that […]

In this guest blog, National Arts Fundraising School alumna Fiona Mason, now a freelance writer, arts consultant and Development Manager for Pacitti Company, shares her story since attending the School.

=mc Director Bernard Ross bucks against the latest fundraising trend… and with good reason.

In this blog, Kay Packwood, Creative Projects Development Manager at Northern Broadsides shares her experience on the National Arts Fundraising School in 2017.

This guest blog is written by National Arts Fundraising School Alumna Deborah Parker, Chief Executive Officer at Cinema For All. We caught up with Deborah at a recent Alumni event and asked her to share her story since attending the School seven years ago: In 2009 I was working for one of the old Regional Screen Agencies in Manchester […]

After a late night preparing their pitches, NAFS participants are up early on this bright and sunny day in Alfriston to do their Corporate Pitch task. Everyone is looking super smart and ready to pitch to a company for anywhere up to £50,000 – and have six minutes to do so, with their fellow delegates watching, and a camera recording them…

Two amazing speakers today, starting with Dr. Claire Routley… the *only* lady with a PhD on Legacy Fundraising. Her enthusiasm is just infectious, and she gave some of the most interesting and useful insight on trends, motivations and promotional tips.

Something that strikes me about the way the course is structured and designed is how it enables us all, both staff and participants, to reflect on our learning so far and share experiences, thoughts, reservations, dreams and ideas with each other over the (delicious) meals.