The main source of private financing of the arts and culture in Finland is the private grant-giving foundations. According to the COFF – Council of Finnish Foundations, its member organisations provided all in all EUR 451 million to support Finnish art, culture, science and research and different social aims in 2015.
Research data on private funding for the arts in Finland is already very dated and new data would be needed to assess the current situation and aims of sponsoring, or public-private partnerships. In 2008 (the year of the latest data) direct business company support to the arts and culture in Finland was modest and support had declined since 1999. These conclusions were based on questionnaire surveys carried out by the Arts Council of Finland in 1999, 2003 and 2008. The monitored “company support” covered purchases of works of art, actual sponsorship, joint marketing, and donations to funds supporting the arts and culture.
The 2008 survey questionnaire was mailed to 1 376 companies, of which 594 were large enterprises. Only 27% of the recipients of the questionnaire responded, and approximately one-fifth of all the companies had supported the arts and culture. All in all, the companies used some 17.4 million EUR to support the arts and culture in 2008. Of the total amount of support, two-fifths were from manufacturing companies and the rest from the class “other type of companies”. There was a distinct fall in support from 1999 to 2003 and no recovery had taken place by 2008. The lack of recovery might reflect the inability of cultural institutions to adapt to new types of sponsorship, especially to joint marketing.
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