Conference on cultural non-grant fundraising

On Monday 25th November 2024, a day-long Conference on cultural non-grant fundraising took place in the large hall of the Husa na provázku Theatre. The conference was organised by the Department of Culture of the Brno City Municipality in cooperation with the Centre of Experimental Theatre and the platform for cultural non-grant fundraising - ARTIKULA.

This was the first time that a conference of this scale and focused directly on culture and the cultural sector took place in the Czech Republic, and two hundred participants came to the conference from various cultural organisations across the country.

The event aimed to educate and connect professionals from different cultural sectors and fundraising. In the three blocks of the conference, 15 speakers with experience not only in cultural fundraising, but also representatives of companies, philanthropists and corporate foundations spoke about their experiences.

We were welcomed at the conference by the Deputy Mayor of Brno Filip Chvátal, Head of the Department of Culture of the Brno City Municipality Veronika Majíčková, Director of the Centre for Experimental Theatre Jan Búrik and Martina Loneková and Wanda Toaderová from the platform for cultural non-grant fundraising - ARTIKULA.

The first block, in which we learned about donation and other forms of non-grant fundraising, was introduced by fundraising consultant Jiří Bárta, who specializes in so-called "major donors". The program was followed by Markéta Kunešová, partner project specialist of the Dobrobot platform, continued with Martin Hudeček, educator and manager of RSJ Investments. David Dixon, founder and director of the Dutch company True Motion, also spoke from the stream. The session was closed by Martina Lonekova and Wanda Toaderová from Targeta, a platform that educates and helps cultural organisations with connections to the commercial sector.

In the second block, representatives from "the other side" spoke. The audience was introduced to Jan Školník, entrepreneur, philanthropist and co-founder of the Broumov Region Development Agency, Lukáš Trnka, Marketing Director of BH Securities and Kristýna Červinková, Communications Manager of the Škoda Auto Foundation. All three of them then answered questions from the conference participants and provided unique insight into the thinking of potential partners.

The last block was opened by Barbora Hančíková, who introduced the reward portal Hithit and brought the audience closer to the topic of crowdfunding. This was followed by a panel discussion led by the conference moderator Mario Kubaš, in which guests from cultural subjects of different genres, sizes and regions shared their experiences with fundraising. The panel consisted of Kateřina Bohadlová, director of the independent theatre company Geisslers Hofcomoedianten, Pavel Kubaník, principal of Kulturák in Chvalčov, Jan Průša, head of partner and patron care at the Smetana Litomyšl Festival, Ondřej Vykoukal, executive director of Cirk La Putyka and Jatka78 and executive director of JezzFestBrno, Vlastimil Trllo.