Grant-in-aid funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to cultural charities fell by 30% last year, according to new figures.
Data published today by DCMS shows that the department gave a total of £1.28bn in grant-in-aid funding to 19 cultural organisations including Arts Council England, the British Museum and Historic England, in the year to March 2023.
When adjusted for inflation, this compares with £1.71bn in 2021-22 and £1.83bn the year before.
But these organisations generated a total of £492m through fundraising income last year (an increase of 11.8% compared with 2021-22) and £27.5m in the form of donated objects (2021-22: £47.7m).
The charities also increased income from other activities such as trading, investment income and admission fees, which generated a total of £2.4bn, a 19.9% increase compared with 2021-22 when adjusting for inflation.
Overall, the organisations received £4.22bn last year, compared with £4.06bn in 2021-22 and £3.57bn in 2018-19, the last year unaffected by Covid-19.
Fundraising to grant-in-aid ratio
DCMS said the cultural organisations it funds operate under various funding models, “reflecting their diversity of size, type and purpose”.
Excluding donated objects, the ratio of fundraising income to grant-in-aid was 38.6% last year.
This means that for every £1 of grant-in-aid these organisations received, they generated an extra 38.6p of fundraising income, which is up from 24.1p in 2021-22.
Including donated objects, the ratio of total fundraising income to total grant-in-aid was 40.7% in 2022-23.
Sponsored museums self-generated £297m
DCMS also sponsors 15 museums and galleries such as the Science Museum Group, Horniman Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
A separate dataset also published today shows that these museums and galleries self-generated a total income of over £297m last year, an inflation-adjusted increase of 26% from 2021-22.
The £297m raised through fundraising, admissions income and trading net profit is a decrease of 9.8% from 2018-19 when comparing museums open in both periods, and it includes:
- £188.6m (63% of total) from fundraising/contributed income, an inflation-adjusted increase of 5.5% over the figures recorded in 2021-22 and an 11.2% decrease compared with 2018-19.
- A trading net profit of £53.8m (18% of total), an inflation-adjusted increase of 120.2% over the figures recorded in 2021-22 and a 3.8% increase compared with 2018-19.
- £56.4m from admissions income (19% of total), an increase of 66% over the figures recorded in 2021-22 and a 16% decrease compared with 2018-19.
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