Festivals Toolkit: Fundraising: Public Sector

Grants for the Arts (GftA)
GftA is the lottery funded programme operated by Arts Council England. GftA awards are for individuals, Festivals Imagearts organisations and other people who use the arts in their work. They are for activities that benefit people in England or that help artists and arts organisations from England to carry out their work. All festivals and Well Dressing organisations in Derbyshire should be eligible so long as the activity you want GftA to support provides potential benefit to the public, in the short or long term. Do remember, though, that the Arts Council receives many more applications that it is able to fund.

Completing a GftA application requires two things:

  • A written proposal that provides information on your organisation, your project, your target audience and your expected legacy under six headings, and

  • A formal application which includes financial information on your project

It is not quite as simple as that, of course, and recognising that some applicants may have difficulty Arts Council England, East Midlands occasionally offers G4TA seminars which provide potential applicants further information on what it can fund and how to write a funding application. Further information and application packs can be found on Arts Council England’s website funding page.

The GftA programme is very well resourced in terms of guidelines and general advice. Here are a range of useful sites that you can visit:

Big Lottery
The Big Lottery Fund is also funded from the National Lottery to support good causes. Its money goes to community groups and to projects that improve health, education and the environment. It has been undersubscribed by arts organisations but the funding criteria of several of its programmes can be appropriate to the arts sector.

Here are a range of useful sites that you can visit:

Navigate the toolkit

You are currently reading the 'Fundraising' section. 

Return to the Toolkit homepage