Financing Sustainability in the Arts Sector: The Case of the Art Bonus Public Crowdfunding Campaign in Italy

Abstract

This paper addresses the conditions that can facilitate the long-term effectiveness of civic crowdfunding fundraising strategies. While previous studies have provided a broad picture of the possible conditions for fostering effective fundraising strategies, most have considered the implications of fundraising only for management or only for cultural policy, neglecting an integrated approach that contemplates the needs of both. Thus, this work integrates cultural management and cultural policy perspectives by discussing a specific exploratory case study: Art Bonus, a cultural patronage tax incentive strategy introduced by the Italian government in 2014, which also includes civic crowdfunding features. To the best of our knowledge, Art Bonus is the first national civic crowdfunding platform supported by a national government. As an innovative and unique platform, its analysis is particularly relevant. This work analyzes the system’s functioning and the results obtained in its first years of operation (2014–2016) by accessing the public database relating to the donations transited through the platform. While the initiative effectively channeled more fundraising resources into the cultural sector, the results also illustrate potential points for improving such a system.

The contribution of crowdfunding for philanthropy: A systematic review and framework of donation and reward crowdfunding

“…The project creator can also highlight a specific community connected with the project (Ein‐Gar, 2018; Josefy et al, 2017; Paust, 2021), an essential component of crowdfunding (Booth, 2015; Donelli et al, 2022; Josefy et al, 2017; Kim et al, 2022; Paust, 2021; Zhang, Zhang, & Gupta, 2022). Some feel a strong belonging need (i.e., the human preference to be included by a valued group, see Baumeister & Leary, 1995) to a specific community (Bürger & Kleinert, 2021; Kościółek, 2021).…”

Philanthropy patterns in major Australian performing arts organizations

“…To date, the field has been dominated by motivational studies using an individual perspective (Bertacchini et al, 2011 ; Lindahl & Conley, 2002 ); and a corporate perspective (Selma et al, 2020 ; Webb, 2004 ). Other studies investigate how external factors can affect donation behavior, such as government support (Brooks, 1999 ; Borgonovi, 2006 ) and tax benefits (Donelli et al, 2022 ; Mulcahy, 1998 ; Pharoah, 2010 ). Shifting the focus from donors to recipient cultural organizations, studies on philanthropy have been undertaken mainly in relation to philanthropic foundations (Toepler, 2018 ), and venture philanthropy (Moody, 2008 ) for which raising funds is the core activity of their business model.…”

Financial-Return Crowdfunding for Energy and Sustainability in the German-Speaking Realm

“…As relevant dates, we choose the year in which a campaign takes place. The campaign year has already been used in previous studies [7,14]. By considering the years, we control for the general increase in the popularity of CF or other historic events with economic implications.…”

“…These types can be classified into non-financialreturn (e.g., donation-and reward-based CF) and financial-return CF (e.g., lending-and equity-based CF) [12,13]. However, while non-financial-return CF might be more applicable to promote cultural ventures [14], grass-rout initiatives, and product innovations, financialreturn CF might be more applicable to support relatively higher investments in established sustainable technologies [15]. In this study, we focus on the capabilities and constraints of the financial-return CF market in the German-speaking realm and aim to investigate how CF can contribute to realizing sustainable development such as the energy transition [5,10].…”