Nottingham Playhouse

Revenue funding for theatres almost always comes from public bodies such as the national Arts Councils, the regional offices of the Arts Councils, or from local government.

Usually, revenue funding is agreed for a number of years, so that the organisation in receipt of it can make longer-term plans, and employ core staff. It is not usually tied to the delivery of specific projects – rather, the funder makes an agreement with the recipient company about its broad artistic aims and objectives, where and to whom its work will be delivered, how much work it will deliver each year, and how it will be evaluated. The funder will monitor the company’s work; it will also expect the company to have strong policies on Equal Opportunities and employment practices, good management systems, and clear accounting systems and audit trails. Where local authorities are the funding bodies, these agreements are usually called Service Level Agreements.

Roundabout receives local government revenue funding from City Of Nottingham Education, and - via Nottingham Playhouse - revenue funding from the Arts Council of England.

Project funding is exactly that: an amount of money given to a company to deliver a specific project. This might range from a couple of hundred pounds to many thousands.

Many organisations give project funding. Roundabout has received project funds from its Regional Arts Board, from the National Lottery, from several different local authority departments, from national government, from trusts and foundations, and from private companies.

Organisations which give project funding work in very different ways with recipient companies. Where there is an existing working relationship and the funder knows the company’s work well, they may have a very ‘light touch’ approach to managing the project. In other cases, the funder requires the company to report back to them at every stage of the project’s development.

Project funding can be both a blessing and a curse to arts organisations. Almost all companies rely on it to deliver part of their programmes, and use it to create good work which delivers good value for their funding partners. However, many young people’s theatre companies are not as fortunate as Roundabout in receiving significant revenue funding, which means they have an over-dependence on project funding. Consequently, they have to spend a lot of their time fundraising rather than creating work, and it’s difficult for them to plan ahead. In this situation, project funding can actually have a hand in dictating the artistic policy of the company: if money is only available for certain types of work, then that is the only work the company can deliver at that time. Companies are skilled in matching their artistic ambitions with their funding partner’s criteria in a creative way, but they do rely on a degree of flexibility in the relationship.

In recent years, Roundabout has received project funding from:

Capital One
The Regional Arts Lottery Programme
Powergen
Gedling Borough Council
The City of Nottingham
Rushcliffe Borough Council