It should be noted that there are currently no private funding statistics and it is not possible to provide data and trends of financial donations to culture.
The only major charity fund is the Cartu Foundation. The independent foundation Cartu Group (the owner is Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili) has published its expenses for charitable activities it supported from 2005 to 2010. Ivanishvili allocated a total of 1 156 081 151 GEL through the charitable funds “Cartu”, “Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments” and the Association “Atus”. The areas supported were culture, art, sport, medicine, science, education, agriculture and socially vulnerable people.
Table 8: Expenses of charitable institutions, in GEL, 2005-2010
| Year | Institutions | Domain | Expenses | Total |
| 2005 | International charitable fund “Cartu” | Culture sphere | 16 585 793 | 27 095 202 |
| Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments | Construction of churches | 10 090 382 | ||
| Restoration of 15 monuments and churches | 419 027 | |||
| 2006 | International charitable fund “Cartu” | Construction of St. Trinity Cathedral | 9 280 000 | 157 768 892 |
| Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments | Construction of 69 historical monuments and churches | 2 349 883 | ||
| Association “Atu” | Construction and rehabilitation of recreation and cultural-entertainment objects, construction of education objects | 146 139 009 | ||
| 2007 | International charitable fund “Cartu” | Construction of St. Trinity Cathedral, charitable financing of culture and art spheres | 181 916 475 | 184 734 569 |
| Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments | Restoration of historical and cultural monuments, 81 churches | 2 818 094 | ||
| 2008 | International charitable fund “Cartu” | Charitable financing of culture | 170 223 837 | 174 421 999 |
| Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments | Restoration of 113 churches | 4 198 162 | ||
| 2009 | International charitable fund “Cartu” | Social aid to the honoured art workers | 4 438 065 | 25 660 774 |
| Reconstruction of J. Kakhidze Music Centre | 4 681 100 | |||
| Reconstruction of S. Janashia State Museum of History | 1 431 400 | |||
| Reconstruction of Al. Griboedov Russian Drama theatre | 1 338 300 | |||
| Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments | Rehabilitation of 133 historical monuments | 4 340 403 | ||
| Complex restoration of medieval architecture and painting monuments | 4 480 606 | |||
| Construction of Natanebi concert hall | 4 950 900 | |||
| 2010 | International charitable fund “Cartu” | Financing of culture and art sphere | 18 089 169 | 22 335 673 |
| Foundation for Protection and Rescue of Historical Monuments | Restoration-rehabilitation of 212 historical churches | 4 246 504 |
Most cultural activities (e.g. exhibitions, publications, concerts, festivals, creation of performing arts etc.) are conducted with funds allocated from state and municipal budgets, and a large share from Georgian private funds is allocated for cultural heritage (e.g. with the support of the International Charity Foundation “Cartu” a large number of monuments of cultural heritage have been restored. In particular, according to the 2017 report of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection, the Cartu Foundation allocated 7 593 324 GEL for 15 monuments of cultural heritage, while in the same period the Ministry spent 3 562 000 GEL on 46 monuments. In 2017, the restoration-rehabilitation of 24 monuments was completed, and out of a total of 36 700 000 GEL spent on this activity, only 7 000 000 GEL was allocated from state funds and 29 700 000 GEL was allocated by the Cartu Foundation).
The information about the forms of cooperation between the state institutions and the Cartu Group (any official agreements or project contracts) is not available. No other information is currently available about Cartu donations.
Also, there are small donations for specific projects from banks and businessmen such as the “Saba” awards by TBC bank and “Duruji” awards by businessman Lasha Papashvili.
Georgian legislation has not yet developed sponsorship and charitable funding concepts and only church construction is exempted from tax.
The current state subsidy system is insufficient for the development-oriented cultural activities. Financial sources are not diversified; there is no sound strategy for a new financial model.
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