COSIMO:the new cultural funding model during and post crisis

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  Model

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  Projects applicable

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  Timeline

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  Cover page

Inspiration

CURRENT SITUATION At the moment, due to the corona regulations, hundreds of thousands of independent creatives as well as influential cultural organisations are experiencing a dramatic crisis caused by all cultural events across the EU being cancelled and social distancing measures in general. The VVEM (the Dutch Association of Event Creators) estimates that Covid-19 will cause a financial loss with a minimum of 3,4 billion euro and it’s highly likely that in the coming year at least 48.000 jobs in this sector will be lost in the Netherlands only. The impact on other EU countries will be even stronger.

THE FUTURE It would be too optimistic to expect that national governments and the EU will be able to fully improve the situation for the sector. A substantial part of the budgets will most probably go to cover the costs of the vital sectors such as healthcare and to ‘revitalise’ companies of national/EU-level economic importance.

OPPORTUNITY: WHERE IS THE MONEY? Although many companies are suffering losses, there are a lot of small- and medium-sized enterprises that will benefit financially from the restrictions implemented to fight covid-19 (online shops, grocery stores, digital services), therefore money will stay in the economy, yet shifted strongly.

Needless to say what impact arts and culture have on our society. It is crucial that in the post-corona world creatives are able to reach their audiences. In real life (if that is possible in the near future) or in a digital environment. Therefore we’ve asked ourselves “How can we influence this situation in such a way that creatives can work on their projects and businesses who are financially “luckier” can add social value to their community, city, country affected by the crisis?”

What it does

GOAL We will be matching creatives, who are in search of funding/resources to adjust to the corona crisis, with the local businesses willing to support them. Such matches are project-based and will be executed by applying the Dutch law of tax incentives (‘Geefwet’) that allows a company to deduct 125% of the ‘donated’ amount from their profit tax. In this process we will be running the platform showcasing projects and actively scouting for businesses. Together with that we'll also be in the role of the legal ‘gateway’ responsible for financial transactions and projects executed swiftly and transparently.

LEGAL OPPORTUNITY The Dutch Geefwet (along with its analogues in other EU countries) is only possible to apply if a project/activity fits the criteria of 'adding public benefit', which is definitely the case with the post-corona adjustments of the cultural and creative sector described above. However, its bureaucratic requirements will be too complicated and time consuming for each specific creative to fulfil. Therefore, with our already existing COSIMO foundation, we will apply for a legal status that allows us to make use of the above-mentioned law (Dutch: ANBI status), taking the legal and financial responsibility for each match and financial transaction made. Our model will be fully ready to apply within two months from getting a ‘go’.

APPLICABLE PROJECTS 1.Digitising an existing cultural product (that cannot function as normal due to corona/post-corona restrictions). For example: 1.1.Setting up interactive livestreams of a theater performance 1.2.Creating virtual art galleries 1.3.Donation-based online concerts

2.Creative ideas that are approaching specific societal issues caused by the corona crisis. For example: 2.1.Playing music concerts outside a hospital 2.2.Making personalized art pieces for isolated elderly people

HOW? FORM: website + networking + social media We will build a website that will function as a virtual showroom where creatives can upload their project pitches and businesses can browse through them in a youtube-like setting, matching with the best fitting projects. To strengthen the digital environment we’ll also proactively approach new businesses, proposing them projects that fit within their scope of activity and brand. And finally we’ll also involve the local governments, knowledge institutions and media to promote the initiative among wider public. This will be highlighting the positive impact of the joint community empowerment that the project is stimulating in the city.

HOW DOES IT WORK FOR A CREATIVE WITH A GREAT IDEA? The creative...

1.Approaches us to share an initial idea and see if the concept is applicable

2.Registers on our website, uploading a 3 minute video pitch + attachment documents describing the project

3.Adds labels representing causes and categories (for example: #music #sustainability #elderly #singing #workshop) that will make it easier to ensure the match

4.Indicates what he/she currently needs: funding or other resources (camera, room for shooting video, livestream equipment, paint, server capacity, media coverage, etc) that can be provided by the businesses

5.Once that’s done, the project is showcased in a youtube-looking overview that businesses can browse through and choose to support it

HOW DOES IT WORK FOR A BUSINESS WILLING TO SUPPORT A CULTURAL PROJECT?

1.We will approach companies forwarding them selection of projects that might interest them and arrange ‘online speed dates’ with creatives working on those

2.After the project got a funding ‘go’, businesses are not able to influence their concept, yet will be regularly updated on its development and results

3.When the project is done, it’s video and details are presented in a virtual gallery on our website, showcasing its process, number of people affected and societal impact

4.Each project will be added to a local community map, live showcasing all the projects that are made happen, businesses involved and people impacted. This will stimulate a mutual empowering atmosphere that will be especially important for the challenging corona and post corona times

5.Our team will secure the additional dissemination of the whole initiative as well as it’s support within the local government, knowledge institutions, media, creatives and business communities

How we built it

IDEATION PROCESS During our brainstorm process we went through possible solutions as crowdfunding, traditional sponsorships or the ‘barter’ approach: companies are giving creatives a ‘challenge’ that they’re facing and creatives have to come up with unique solution in exchange for a compensation. Later we concluded that such matches would be very complicated to make, plus that there’s a big risk companies would not be eager to spend money to compensate the creatives in these financially challenging times. However we did conclude that the principle of matching creatives and businesses applied to a shared goal was found to be appealing to both of the parties.

LEGAL OPPORTUNITIES Within our process we have analysed the existing legal opportunities that can be used to generate cultural funding in the Netherlands. We have discovered the above-mentioned 'giving law' (Dutch: 'Geefwet’) and performed a quickscan assessing the ideas' potential on EU level. As a result we’ve concluded that apart from the Netherlands, analogues of such a law exist in 75% of the EU countries.

WEBSITE + THE HUMAN FACTOR Shortly after finding this out we drafted basic technical requirements for the website to be able to ensure matches. 1.Clear project pitch: video + details (drafts, graphics, project plans) 2.Topic labeling to improve the match precision 3.Showcasing a live map of all projects that were made happen, businesses involved in them and individuals impacted

And necessary offline activities performed by our team 1.Proactive business approaching 2.Arranging our concepts' support by the local media, governments, knowledge institutions

Challenges we ran into

In the beginning it was difficult to indicate what funding opportunities are still available during this crisis. After we've discovered the 'Giving Law' and built the whole infrastructure (Who can apply? Who can donate? What kind of projects will be supported?) we were faced with the next challenge: assuring our own model is financially sustainable. If we do make the matches and support creatives, where do can we get the money for the website, team, legal advice?

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We believe that during this weekend we've turned a big problem into a workable solution. Together with developing the fundamental principles of our model, its social impact, website architecture and legal framework, we've also found the solution to make it financially sustainable. We found out that we are able to do this when we add a fee of 10% on every project donation done by a company. This amount is also deductible from the tax applications of the companies.

What we learned

Our challenge was rather paradoxical: searching for additional funding for the culture sector during one of the heaviest crises of the 21st century. However it was truly inspiring to find out that both creatives and businesses are not only thinking about their own 'survival', but are also searching for ways to add value to the community they belong to in these difficult times. The famous expression "think globally, act locally" has truly proven itself!

What's next for COSIMO: the new culture funding model during and post crisis

LOCAL START: Once we get a ‘go’ for the project, we’ll be able to build the website, obtain the required legal ‘ANBI’ status and start the project-business ‘matching’ in the northern region of the Netherlands within 2 months.

NATIONAL & EU SCALE-UP: After the COSIMO model has been proven to be working in the north of the Netherlands, we’ll scale up to the rest of the Netherlands. Parallel to this we’ll be doing our research on the most model-friendly countries within the EU and look at the criteria we need to fit to be able to obtain the legal status there. In the meantime we’ll focus on these local governments, creatives and businesses that we are able to attract in order to kick off the project in each specific EU city and country we aim at involving in this later stage.

Built With

• database
• matchmaking
• networking
• socialmedia
• virtualshowroom
• website