Environmental Scan of Funders
We’ve developed the research and data platforms, to help your organization explore and map many different funding sources and help you prioritize the ones that are most likely to succeed for your organization:
- federal or provincial funding programs
- private sector, community, family, or technology foundations
- strategic partners
We can create a list of funding options linked to ongoing programming, special exhibits or events, or capital improvements for you. Once this list is created, we can link this report to your existing strategic plan or action plan.
While we started developing these services and tools for our clients during the readjustment period many of them faced during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, we have updated this insight in the context of the current US-Canada Tariff disruption (January 2025 – March 2025).
Based on our founder’s background in non-profit organizations, grant writing as well as social enterprise research, we continue to notice and respond to leading work in this area.
We are available to conduct a concise Revenue Development Discovery Report, to identify and optimize your existing resources to identify shorter-term and longer-term options for enhanced resources for your organization.
Neeky Dalir’s recent report for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Ontario’s Arts, Culture, and Creative Industries: Strengthening Competitiveness and Communities has provided some great links to further help your organization adjust to some of the larger trends in Ontario and beyond.
In the report mentioned above, we found a report co-authored by David Maggs, Impact Investing in the Cultural and Creative Sectors: Insights from an Emerging Field. Over the past year, when we put together an insight exploring tools to consider before Embarking on a Social Enterprise Strategy, I explored the emerging field of social capital and impact investing in Canada.
Over the next six months to a year, we hope to provide further insights into our client projects and industry insights in social enterprise, revenue development, impact investing and business model realignment.
Revenue Development
Discovery Report
Demographic Shifts in Consumer Behaviour
The Globe and Mail recently published an article outlining the reasons behind the Bank of Nova Scotia’s decision to drop its title sponsorship of Toronto’s Contact Photography Festival. Josh O’Kane wrote that:
Though companies are still interested in arts and culture, some leaders in the sponsorship sector say that throwing a company’s name onto major festivals’ titles appears to have become less lucrative over the past decade. Potential sponsors are paying more attention to social causes they believe will boost their brand, while the well-heeled world of pro sports offers more eyeballs and data to prove returns on investment.
Scotiabank drops Contact Photography Festival partnership in another revenue blow to struggling art events, Josh O’Kane, Globe and Mail, March 14, 2024
Norm O’Reilly is mentioned in this article as a ‘long-time sponsorship scholar’ who suggested that a major shakeup in how Canadian companies spread their sponsorship dollars began about a decade ago. O’Reilly has run the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study for over 20 years. He indicates that a “renaissance” in sports funding starting around 2013, led to its piece of the pie doubling to nearly 45% in 2022.
This study mentioned the several techniques and measures used to demonstrate the impact of donation and sponsorship impact:
- Post-event reports/audits
- Demographics
- Mentions in the press
- Social Media Impressions
- Lead generation/new contacts
Strategic Partnerships
Researchers and cultural service organizations are increasingly investigating social impact tools and evaluation methodologies to capture the qualitative and quantitative aspects of investments in arts and culture.
Sharing these resources with practitioners in the field of sponsorship development will help to produce more strategic partners and private-sector sponsors to broaden financial sustainability beyond public-sector funding agencies.