Two peers warned arts organisations that they are too reliant on major donors and need to diversify their income streams, as the launch of a new event fundraising platform last night.

Baroness Wheatcroft and Lord Smith of Finsbury hosted an event at the Houses of Parliament last night to launch Donate Event to facilitate mobile giving during fundraising events.

Wheatcroft, who is a trustee of the British Museum, said: “British Museum, like many other major tourist centres, chase after the rich.”

She added that there were a “limited number of people” and that while they “they give very generously” it is “really important that the pool from which organisations are financed is much broader”.

The Donate online donation platform enables arts and heritage organisations to set up fundraising fundraising pages for free. They can accept donations online, via text short codes and make use of near-field communication technology with QR codes.

The National Funding Scheme, the organisation behind Donate, is a registered charity. The platform launched a in 2013 with support from the Cabinet Office, Nesta, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts and currently there are around 80 active campaigns on its site.

There are no upfront fees for arts and heritage organisations but NFS does take 45 per cent of gift aid. If no gift aid is claimed it charges a commission of 2.5 per cent of the donation.

Wheatcroft added that by being able to donate small amounts during a visit to an attraction it helps people to “feel part of the community, and if ever it is important to feel part of the community it is now”.

Lord Smith said that the platform is “democratising fundraising”.

“Arts organisations rely on one or two big wealthy donors,” he added.  But there are “crowds of people who can give individually, not to the same extent, but collectively they make a big difference”.

Battersea Arts Centre

Last week a major fire destroyed one-third of Battersea Arts Centre, including its Grand Hall. The charity had already signed up to Donate and a fundraising page was launched within two hours.

So far almost £75,000 has been raised. The average donation amount is £29 and 81 per cent of donors included gift aid.

At yesterday’s event Kane Moore, senior development manager at BAC, said: “The outpouring of support makes a powerful case for the value of the arts.”

“The last six days have been hard but the important thing is that no-one was hurt, including our cat Pluto, and that we were able to save the rest of the building,” he added. And that “As well as donating come down and see us – we’re still very much open.”

Managing director made redundant

Last month NFS trustees decided to make the managing director, Sue Davies, redundant after just four months in the role.

In a statement trustees said: "The Board of Trustees regretfully decided to make the position of managing director redundant as of the end of March, as the trustees considered it in the best interests of the charity to substantially reallocate limited resources to providing frontline support to our existing partners until such time as our financial condition can support growth and expansion.

The Board of Trustees would like to acknowledge and thank Sue Davies for the contributions to the charity she made during her tenure as managing director.”

Davies had joined the charity in November 2014, succeeding founding director Paul Cutts who is now the international managing director for decorative arts at Christies.

NFS has filed one set of accounts with the Charity Commission. It had an income of £339,517 and a spending of £289,599.