Shared purpose fills creative pool

An 11th-hour effort to ensure New York-based Merce Cunningham Dance Company could perform at the 2001 Perth Festival became the unlikely catalyst for one of Perth’s longest-running donor circles.

When it was announced Perth Festival did not have the budget to follow through on its plan to bring the dance troupe to perform on Cottesloe Beach, freelance journalist, author and dance critic, the late David Hough, vaulted into action.

He asked for 24 hours to secure the funds to ensure the show could go on.

Mr Hough followed through and found 25 individuals who each contributed $1,000 so the festival could fly the dance troupe to Perth.

This formed the basis for a donor circle, named Medici, which was founded soon after by Mack and Evelyn Hall.

Now led by Perth Festival chair Tim Ungar and wife Chris Ungar, Medici has operated for the past two decades, amassed 70 members and supported shows including Mary Stuart, A Magic Flute and Barber Shop Chronicles.

Members of the group make an annual donation starting at $1,500, with the option of increasing it to $2,500, $5,000 or $10,000.

Leaders of the group consult with Perth Festival to agree on what show they should support each year.

Perth Festival head of development Marina Woodhouse said one of the reasons the group was successful was the strong sense of community it created.

“It enables people who have a shared passion and purpose to come together and really make an impact with their pool of support,” Ms Woodhouse told Business News.

“There’s a collective sense of achievement and there’s a deeper level of engagement.”

She said the Medici program totalled about 7 per cent of the revenue generated from Perth Festival’s philanthropy program.

The festival has since set up the Festival Circle, Commissioning Fund and the Chair’s Circle as part of its philanthropy offering.

According to Creative Partnerships Australia WA state manager James Boyd, an increasing number of organisations have since followed Perth Festival’s lead and established their own donor circles.

Mr Boyd, who has helped many organisations establish donor circles, said the groups were psychologically rewarding for donors, allowing people to be part of something bigger than themselves.

“Because they use a pooled fund to achieve something very specific the impact is very clear, so that is quite attractive to a donor,” Mr Boyd told Business News.

“If you give $1,000 as part of a $10,000 gift, and that $10,000 achieves something quite powerful, the benefit you get from seeing that happen is no lesser than if you had given the $10,000 yourself.”

Several well-known arts organisations have established donor circles.

Philanthropists Michela Fini, Sandy Honey and Sallie-Anne Manford started the White Swans donor circle about a decade ago for Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA.

It operates in a similar way to Perth Festival’s Medici group, choosing a production to support each year via its 78 members.

In 2022, the group raised more than $85,000. 

Meanwhile, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts took a different approach, organising its own donor circles.

The institute now has donor circles operating at four levels: ART1000 donors give $1,250, Art Ambassadors contribute $2,500, Director’s Circle donors offer $5,500, and Arts Commissioners give $10,000 or more per year for three years.

Each individual donation is directed to one of PICA’s program areas: either giving artists time to make work, providing them a platform to showcase their art, or offering artists resources.

ART1000 donors and above– currently 70 individuals and couples–receive an invite to PICA Salon Vernissage, the only event where people can buy art from the institute. The Foundation for the WA Museum uses a giving circle model, like Impact100 and the Meridian Global Foundation, where donors get to collectively choose what their money funds.

Members of the Impact Circle donate either $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or $10,000, and receive a corresponding number of votes to choose what museum project the money should support.

Early last month, Artrage, which runs Fringe World Festival, started the Artrage Initiators Circle.

Supporters sign up to contribute $10,000 annually for a three-year period to support new Western Australian work created through its Free Range program.

Smaller arts organisation The Blue Room Theatre established its donor circle in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It based its call for funding on the need to support independent artists during the pandemic.

The theatre asked people to contribute $1,000 each for a period of three years.

The Blue Room Theatre executive director Katt Osborne said the group had about 20 people and had raised between $28,000 and $31,000 annually over the past two years.

Ms Osborne said the donor circle enabled the group to engage supporters in a meaningful way.

“It means you can build the relationship over time; you can tell the story of what you are doing and celebrate the success together,” Ms Osborne told Business News.

Ms Osborne said the fundraising method had provided a good return on investment given the organisation’s small team.

“If you don’t have a big organisation, the investment of your time pays off over multiple years and your relationships are important with any type of fundraising, so it feels like a good use of time,” she said.

Creative Partnership’s Mr Boyd said the fundraising method could work for groups of all sizes.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that they can be used in every situation, whether you are a 100 per cent volunteer group in a regional community or in the opera and the ballet,” he said.

Mr Boyd suggested the easiest way to start a donor circle was to find one or two supporters or board members who could run with the idea.

To keep it simple, he said, the organisation should choose where the money went in consultation with leaders from the donor group.

However, Mr Boyd said lead donors should be able to choose how the money was raised.

For example, organisers could be more comfortable finding 20 people to give $2,500, rather than 50 people donating $1,000.

Mr Boyd said member retention and return on investment were good ways to measure the success of a group.

“If a donor circle is run well, you should expect 80 per cent of your members to renew, you should expect annual growth and you should measure your return on investment over two or three years,” he said.