The Culture

Benchmark

So, what is it?

• Financial, audience & sustainability metricsfor Non-Profits– Any size– Anywhere– Any sector

• Vs. – Your peers– Best in Class– Your competitors

• Online & confidential• Available 24 x 7• Special Audience section forACE RFOs

For the first time ever, Non-Profits

can assess financial and sustainability performance

OBJECTIVELY

What people are saying“The Culture Benchmark comes at an extremely apposite moment, given the recently expanded infrastructure for arts provision and a pressurised public funding environment”

Godfrey Worsley, Director, The Baltic

“I had a light bulb moment within five minutes of studying the benchmark”

Benjamin Cook, Director, Lux Arts Agency

“Your figures were very useful for us. We discovered that our building is expensive (we thought it was cheap), that our artistic programme and marketing need accounting differently and that we really could be raising more money from trusts, foundations and corporate sponsors”

Ruth Catlow, Director, Furtherfield

So, how does it work?

• Fill out a web form once a year– Takes about an hour from scratch

• Need a login, password etc• Data is checked for consistency by MyCake

• Assigned to various Peer Groups– Museums, RFOs, Venue Based etc

• Then you can see results– Avg, Max, Min, Quartile– You vs. All, Peer Groups– Filter & make your own Comparison Groups

Inputting Data

Part of the INCOME section of the Web Form

Data shown as % of IncomeEnables

comparison

Yellow Boxes=

Raw data

You fill in

Cost Profil

e

Sustainability ScoresLooks at things like:

• Surplus

• Reserves

• Staff turnover

• Voluntary help

• Non-Core funding

• Growth

• Capacity

• Patronage

Audiences

Mirrors RFO data

Results

• No data, No See• Only individual data you can see is Yours• Choose Benchmark period• You Versus

– Overall average– Average of your Peer Groups

• Also vs. Max, Min & Quartile• Can see what is achievable• Enables you to assess the Feasibility of Improvement

Online Results

Venue Based vs. Overall Avg

• ACE £ lower by 2%

• Revenue Grants 7.8% lower

• Venue derived £ only 2.1% higher

• But significant Contract Income too

Choose what to display from dropdowns

Venue Based• Higher Rent & rates

• Higher Governance

• Higher Depreciation

• As one might expect

Top Quartile in any key area worth about 15% of

Annual Revenue

(see variance column)

Results summary

• Can also “select” via Profile– For example, Charities only

• Once enough data, then Sustainability results too

• AND, Audience results– Specifically aligned to RFO returns

• Filtering allows you to tailor to organisations like/unlike you– Size, geography, sector etc

Any useful data yet?

• Yes there is• As of Jan 24, 2011

– 90 organisations– 151 data sets (70 for 2009)– Growing every week

• Some current Peer Groups– ACE RFOs– Museums– Galleries– Venue based

Almost any Non-Profit can derive real value from the Culture Benchmark right now

Making the most of the data…

• For first time ever, Non-Profits have comparative financial data– Just like PLCs

• Internal goal setting– Seeing where you are strong– What needs improvement– Diversifying Income or managing costs

• Messages to stakeholders – Stronger funding applications– Galvanizing Volunteers & Members– Communicating your achievements

What next?

• Talk to Sarah Thelwall on 07775-562168

• Go to www.mycake.org and register

• Cost is £250/year plus VAT

• OR £600/yr + VAT for a 3 year term

Thank you

We look forward to welcoming you as a participant in the Culture Benchmark