Streetwise Opera launches emergency appeal due to ‘challenging fundraising’ climate

An Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation that produces opera with people who have experienced homelessness has launched an “emergency appeal” to ensure its survival.

Streetwise Opera, which runs a programme of singing and creative workshops in London, Manchester and Nottingham, hopes to raise £120,000 to allow it to continue its work.

There is growing demand for the work, the company says, due to the persistently high cost of living, with record numbers of English households in temporary accommodation.

Streetwise says its finances have been strained by reduced philanthropic funding and rising costs. “As a charity that relies primarily on grants from trusts and foundations, [Streetwise] is especially exposed to the unprecedented pressure on the funding sector,” the opera company said.

“With trusts receiving record numbers of applications, the environment presents unique obstacles for smaller organisations like Streetwise in sustaining their vital work.”

A recent pulse survey by Arts Professional found that arts organisations are turning to trusts and foundations to plug funding gaps caused by local authority cuts to arts spending, leaving them “overwhelmed”.

With more than two-thirds of local authorities cutting or planning to cut the amount they spend on arts and culture, 57% of survey respondents said they had applied for funding from trusts and foundations in response to reduced council funding, driving up competition, with several respondents commenting that the pressure was becoming “unsustainable”.

Financial challenges

As an NPO, Streetwise receives £102,431 each year from ACE for 2023-2026, a marginal rise from the £100,580 it received for 2018-2022.

In its most recent accounts, filed last month for the financial year 2022 – 2023, Streetwise’s income totalled £695,968 compared with £662,822 for 2021-2022.

Grants and donations accounted for £599,037, down from £614,627 the previous year.

Its expenditure amounted to £652,216, compared with £651,323 in 2021-2022, resulting in a total surplus of £43,752 for the year.

At the same time, the number of individuals the organisation worked with increased by 10% from 2021/22.

Smaller NPOs at risk

Streetwise’s financial challenges mirror recent findings from an investigation by Arts Professional in partnership with financial benchmarking company MyCake, which found that smaller arts organisations with incomes between £100k and £1m have been hit hard in the five-year period since 2018.

Having been in profit for the four-year period 2019 – 2022, they posted a collective deficit of 7.2% in 2023, with expenditure of £425.6m against income of £396.7m.

Discussing the financial operation of smaller and larger arts organisations, Sarah Thelwall, Director and founder of MyCake previously noted differences in the scale of reserves they hold, the regularity of their grant income or the longevity of any grant funding and their ability to win contracts with their local authority.

“All of these can lead to a situation where the business models are more precarious with smaller organisations than with larger,” said Thelwall.

Diminished funding and support for opera

Streetwise said increased competition for funds, longer timescales for funder decision-making and trusts and foundations reviewing their priorities had added weight to its plans to diversify its funding by growing earned income and attracting new individual and corporate gifts.

As part of its Stand with Streetwise appeal, the opera company has announced the support of new patrons, including mezzo-sopranos Dame Sarah Connolly and Jennifer Johnston and actors Paterson Joseph and Simon Callow.

Johnston said: “In the operatic landscape, there is no company more socially and culturally impactful than Streetwise, who demonstrate the transformative power of the arts with everything they do.

“As a storyteller, I am inspired by their use of singing and creativity to empower those who have experienced homelessness to rebuild their lives, whilst creating bold new work and reimagining classic repertoire.

“In this age of diminished funding and support for opera as an artform, as their Patron I will shout – and sing – loudly from the rooftops about Streetwise and their remarkable work, helping them to forge ahead with their mission: to create opera that is for everyone.”