Lobbying network building confidence through reading research support and evidence
(notes from Open Space, 25 March 2023)
there is room for collecting concrete evidence
funders are interested in numbers and there seems to be a lack of evidence
is there a way to collect evidence
culture counts there space has researched but there doesn't seem to be a lot of conversation with the sector but culture counts is our conduit to government
who are culture counts talking to in the sector
how do we capture the impact of work when there are no solid outcomes there are small numbers and the nature of the work means there can be no photography or anyone else in the room
there is a Thunder expectation which is often misaligned with the work we do do
scottishbooktrust have ways and processes for capturing intangible elements should we talk to them
maybe maybe we can create or set models for evaluation in our funding application for the project so that we can say what we're going to capture
often we don't evidenced the reality of a project but we evidenced to advocate for our next funding project which is a result of the way the system is currently set up
we need evidence not just for funders But also government and the public to raise consciousness about the arts
there are two ways to capture evidense one is the capturing of impact but also how do we capture the practise undevelopment and the ways of working and thinking which we need more time and money for but how do we evidenced the benefit of this
questions around soft lobbying how do we make it personal for the government?
there's a great example of the Campaign for the Arts in Ireland they have:
a direct conduit to go up to the government
a public campaign, which is very localised for people to understand the impact of the work in their area
a research strand to support them
it's a long strategy but they have also now got a UBI pilot for artists and they have had an uplift in the budget.
it's very different to culture counts because it's voluntary, so salaried people on it, but they all work in the arts delivering projects so they feel the pain of the lack of funds, because they are in a delivery mode for the arts. Culture Counts covers areas of policy and research more.
what should our role in funding be?
How can we combine culture counts and campaign for the arts island to come up with a new model
can there be artistic comments to culture counts have different roles working with her we looked up on the Internet and culture counts works with support organisations like fst so they are two steps removed from the people delivering the work
then we explored different models for collecting evaluation
contribution analysis knowing that things in the social realm a messy you can't prove something objectively but you can see how certain things are shifting and how they are shaped
other models are the most significant change and the theory of change.