The culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and Arts Council England chief executive Alan Davey held their first philanthropy round table with arts leaders on Friday in Manchester.
It was, I'm told, an interesting and productive session. Encouraging philanthropy is one of Hunt's big things. If you recall, the government proposed an £80m match-funding scheme to boost it and Davey wrote the report, Endowments in the Arts, published last December.
Among the proposals being discussed are how bigger arts organisations can mentor and help smaller ones; and how help can be given to those groups who want to fundraise collaboratively.
On the match funding scheme, three tiers are proposed.
The first would be for small, perhaps inexperienced organisations who could get a £1 for every £1 raised. They could get awards of between £1,000 and £10,000.
The next tier would be for bigger organisations with £1 for every £2 raised on offer. The awards could go from £10,000 to £50,000.
Tier 3 is for the much larger organisations who could get £1 for every £3 raised. The proposal is that perhaps two organisations a year could get up to £1m and it would be geared to the ones wanting to develop endowments.
Hunt is staking a lot on his ability to encourage more philanthropic giving. He said the round table meetings, which will continue, were "a huge step forward for arts philanthropy." He added: "The match funding scheme is designed to ensure that small regional bodies have as much chance of attracting funding as our larger institutions and I am grateful to Arts Council England for leading this important work."
But what is your experience or view? Hunt has said he wants 2011 to be the "year of corporate philanthropy." Will it?
