Giving Days on the rise as momentum for generosity grows

Australia’s cultural and creative industries are dynamic and touch all aspects of our communities, from the centrality of arts and culture to Australia’s identity, social unity, and economic prosperity.  

Australia’s cultural and creative industries are also substantial in size, with cultural and creative activity contributing $21.8 billion to Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (this figure includes the following industry subdivisions: creative and performing arts; heritage activities; motion picture and sound recording; broadcasting; publishing; internet publishing and broadcasting; libraries; printing and recorded media)¹ and employing nearly 500,000 people².

Cultural participation is also increasingly understood as foundational to wellbeing and education – enabling connection, self-expression, and the development of 21st century skills – yet when competing against charitable causes in mainstream Australia, philanthropy in support of the arts lacks a perception of need or urgency. 

And yet, only $204 million was donated to organisations advancing culture in 2021³, against a total annual charitable giving by Australians of more than $13B⁴. This low percentage of investment into arts philanthropy does not reflect that 97% of all Australians engage in the arts and that 84% of us recognise the positive individual and broader social impacts of creative engagement⁵. 

This lack of conscious connection and directed action represents an opportunity for a cultural shift in Australia’s perception of, and responsibility to, contribute philanthropically to a cultural charity. And with annual giving days on the rise, Creative Australia is considering the role we can play to stimulate increased generosity and new donor engagement in support of Australian creativity.  

A national giving campaign supporting arts and culture has the capacity to further help lead our public value advocacy and encourage this cultural shift. 

Some of the organisations within our sector have undertaken their own giving day campaigns with excellent results and growth year on year – even in a short period and amidst a global pandemic. Examples include:  

• Flipside Circus’s 2022 giving day (a 12-hour campaign and its second annual giving day) raised $49,000 from 277 donors⁶.
• Adelaide Fringe launched an Arts Unlimited Giving Day in February 2023 raising $40,000 for artists and communities experiencing disadvantage and presented a second day in 2024 raising $101,211⁷.

• In October 2023, Belvoir St. Theatre raised $1.5 million (including a capital campaign, against a target of $1 million) from 772 donors which were quadruple matched by donors of the theatre. This unique matched giving scheme leveraged Belvoir St. Theatre’s existing philanthropic givers to incentivise new donors to give to the cause as each new donation was matched by three other donors⁸.

• In November 2023, the National Theatre ran a ‘Love the Nash’ giving day supported by ‘Charidy’.  They successfully raised $138,000 from 185 donors which was leveraged with matched giving from existing donors⁹.  

• The Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art has run an annual giving day for the past three years which has slowly grown into a significant element of their annual fundraising activity. In 2023, their campaign to support the Gallery’s dedicated programs for young visitors and families achieved $382,000 in fundraising. In 2024, funds raised were directed to the Asia Pacific Triennial and exceeded its $700,000 target. QAGOMA’s annual giving day is the oldest known, with 2024 its fourth consecutive undertaking¹⁰. 

These examples demonstrate Australia’s cultural and creative industries have compelling evidence on the scale and success of giving day campaigns and warrant Creative Australia’s further exploration and possible investment to further encourage and build momentum for a national day of giving to the arts.  

Moreover, evidence and trends suggest we may be on the precipice of a philanthropic evolution in Australia. A relative newcomer to philanthropy, Australia only formalised a structured giving culture in 2001 following government reform incentivising charitable donations via Prescribed Private Funds (PPF), with further reform in 2006 encouraging greater generosity via Public and Private Ancillary Funds (PuAF and PAF)¹¹. 

There is substantial public debate about the role of philanthropy and Australia’s need for better and greater generosity. This debate was first introduced in 2021, with Philanthropy Australia launching A Blueprint to Grow Structured Giving – a plan to achieve the goal of doubling structured giving from $2.5 billion in 2020 to $5 billion by 2030¹². This is further led by the announcement by The Hon. Dr Andrew Leigh MP, of the Australian Government’s goal of also doubling philanthropic giving by 2030, announced in a press release dated February 2023 titled, ‘Harnessing generosity, boosting philanthropy’¹³.

The release also announced a ‘once‑in‑a‑generation’ review of Australian philanthropy. Undertaken by the Productivity Commission, the goal of the review is to boost donations to charities and meet the Australian Government’s goal of doubling philanthropic giving by 2030. The Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Philanthropy Final report, published in July 2024, can be read here. The draft report, which speaks to the nuanced trends in giving, was published in February 2023 and includes the following findings relative to our sector:

• Arts philanthropy is recognised within the report citing positive links to wellbeing, resilience, for connecting people to communities and as a contributor to social cohesion.   

• Arts organisations are also recognised as part of the not-for-profit sector and as contributors to the philanthropic ecology.   

• Arts donors were acknowledged as longstanding contributors to the philanthropic ecology, noting contributions by Australian families for decades and across generations.  

• The report specifically noted that possible policy changes to incentivise increased giving could favour certain causes like ‘arts’ (Valley, 2020, p. 608).  

• The Commission noted the introduction of a public campaign for philanthropy, supported by government, could help broaden participation in giving. 

• Several responders to the consultation stated their support for government to invest in a public information campaign, including Australian Philanthropic Services, Perpetual and Philanthropy Australia – all organisations with close working relationships with Creative Australia – and support/enable private investment into cultural charities.  

And whilst charitable giving in Australia is low by global standards, at only 0.81% of GDP (behind the US at 2.1%, New Zealand at 1.84%, Canada at 1%, and UK at 0.96%)¹⁴,  Australia is also one of the wealthiest nations on earth and wealth at the top end is rising rapidly.  

• Wealth among The Top 200 as reported by The Australian Financial Review has increased from $209 billion to $555 billion between 2016 and 2022, or from an average of $1.05 billion to $2.77 billion.¹⁵  
• Knight Frank estimates that there was over 20,800 ultra-high net worth (UHNW, $30m plus net wealth) people in Australia in 2021¹⁶. 
• The top 10 per cent of households hold 46 per cent of Australia’s wealth¹⁷. 

There is a significant cultural shift required to increase philanthropy to cultural charities.  Creative Australia has already started this work demonstrating that giving to and through the arts is an investment in Australia’s future, with social impact cutting across portfolios, from health and wellbeing, education and child development, to social cohesion and community resilience.  

Creative Australia is committed to equip artists and arts organisations with the tools, platforms and capability to maximise income generated from private investment, as we continually strengthen our role and programs to support the sector to enhance fundraising capacity. A new National Giving Day to the Arts is one of the initiatives we are exploring to support this mission, with more details to be shared in April 2025.  

Register to be kept informed of this opportunity (opening in April 2025) here.

Author: Gillian Mercer, Director Business Development and Partnerships, Creative Australia

Related annual dates

In Australia: 

Mid October: GiveOUT Day – supporting LGBTIQ+

Late November: Aus Music T-Shirt Day

Outside Australia:  

15 April: World Art Day

18 May: International Museums Day

Tuesday after Thanksgiving: Giving Tuesday, US

15 November: National Philanthropy Day, US

Footnotes:

(1) Australian Bureau of Statistics 2023, Australian Industry, 2021–22 financial year.  

(2) Based on creative occupations within the creative industries and other occupations within creative industries, 2021 Census. Cunningham S and McCutcheon M. 2022, The Creative Economy in Australia – What Census 2021 Tells Us.  

(3) Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission 2023, Australian Charities Report: 9th edition. 

(4) Give Now Australia website, 2023

(5) Creative Australia 2023, Creating Value: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey.

(6)  See Flipside Circus’ campaign results.

(7) Adelaide Fringe 2023 Giving Day, Adelaide Fringe – 16 February – 17 March 2024.

(8) See Belvoir St. Theatre’s campaign results.   

(9) See National Theatre’s campaign results.  

(10) See QAGOMA’s campaign results.  

(11) Australian Taxation Office, Philanthropy, February 2024.

(12) Philanthropy Australia – A blueprint to grow structured giving, 2021.

(13) The Hon. Dr Andrew Leigh MP, Harnessing generosity, boosting philanthropy, Feb 2023.

(14) Philanthropy Australia Giving Trends and Opportunities report, Dec 2023.

(15) Rich List. Accessed May 2024. 

(16) The Knight Frank Wealth Sizing Model. Accessed May 2022.

(17) UNSW and ACOSS, The Wealth Inequality Pandemic, 2022