After almost 18 years supporting artists across New Zealand, the Arts Foundation’s giving community was aging and disengaging. Few people knew the organisation existed when we were hired to conduct a strategic review. Our process began with interviews – over fifty conversations that uncovered a strong desire for the arts to be more visible on the national agenda. This was backed by extensive research highlighting that creativity has the power to drive positive societal change. With these insights in hand, we developed a bold new strategy for growth – one that continued to award New Zealand’s most outstanding artists with philanthropic gifts and profile, yet also shared the profound impact of creativity with all New Zealanders; not just the few. Our mission: a national movement, backing artists to make their mark.

In 2020, we were engaged as a delivery partner, managing operations for the organisation in its entirety. We launched a selection of new initiatives such as Springboard and All in for Arts: he waka toi e eke noa nei tatou. We fortified the Art Foundation’s crowdfunding platform Boosted by rallying new support, and began attracting a new movement of powerful backers.

 Since taking over in 2019, we’ve: 
• Tripled individual giving to the Foundation, and doubled it through Boosted
• Secured two principle sponsorships
• Doubled the number of awards given out
• Grown the Arts Foundation’s email database by 195%
• Grown our average engagement rate on Meta from 2.10% to 7.45% (industry average is 2.4%).

With our communications and events team at the helm, the Arts Foundation Laureate announcement has grown to become a major event on the national arts calendar – with the event attended by over 500 people, and the subsequent national campaign driving 650,000 New Zealanders to watch our Laureate videos.