In Tuesday’s (7/3) The Stage (London), Natalie Woolman reports, “Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has launched plans for an independent funding platform that will allow people to give money to arts organisations using their mobile phones. Details of the project, which is using the working title The National Funding Scheme, were unveiled today by founder William Makower. The aim of the initiative is to help the cultural sector raise new funds through mass casual giving. Domestic and international visitors will be able to give money to organisations using their mobiles in a variety of ways including SMS texts and apps. … Hunt said: ‘This could have been a period of great gnashing of teeth and despair [in the cultural sector] but actually everyone has risen to the challenge and we have got to look beyond the current, real challenges we face to work out a better way of funding cultural organisations that makes us less dependent on any one source.’ … It is hoped that the scheme will be available to cultural organisations by March 2013 but the company that is working on the platform—Panlogic—needs to raise funds in order to develop it.”
Posted July 5, 2012
