Capital fundraising ? Keep looking

A determined approach to fundraising has helped secure a massive redevelopment for Northampton Theatres. Donna Munday explains how.
On 3 April this year, Royal and Derngate Theatres closed its doors for a £14m redevelopment. The staff and patrons of the theatres had been waiting for years for this moment ? ten years to be precise. The gestation of this ambitious project started in the mid-1990s with the advent of Lottery funding. The two theatres, then separate companies, applied for capital grants from the Arts Council of England early in the life of Lottery funding. Those applications culminated in a recommendation for the theatres to merge into one organisation, which was successfully achieved in 1999.

Over the following four years, the project went through the stages that we are now all familiar with ? feasibility, application, re-scoping on the advice of Arts Council England (ACE) officers, re-scoping again, and again, and again? Finally in 2003, a Stage 2 application was submitted and after a minor hiccup involving the verification of financial viability and the feasibility of raising partnership funding, this application was approved. This was based on funds that ACE had ?earmarked? of £6.5m towards a £9.6m project involving significant capital works over two successive summers, with work going on behind hoardings in between. In addition to these funds, the plan was to secure £1.8m from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the restoration of the listed Royal Theatre and raise £1.3m in partnership funding.

There were a number of alarming moments resulting in crisis meetings, including one point in mid-2003 when it was realised that ?work behind hoardings? meant one thing to the architects and something quite different to the theatres. The project swiftly changed to one closure period, sandwiched between two pantomime seasons, which form the financial backbone of the organisation. Design work continued apace and the project developed. However, in winter 2003 two major setbacks occurred. In November that year HLF approved the principle of our application but we didn?t actually get our grant because they had run out of money for that financial year. They recommended that we reapply for the first round in 2004/05. Then, on Christmas Eve, the RIBA Stage C cost plan arrived ? with the bombshell that it was £3m over budget. The choice was stark ? to go back to the design drawing board or raise more money. We went for the latter option.

We had already secured £300,000 from the local authority, and the fundraising was going well on other fronts. However, we had to find a significant new source of money if the project was going to fulfil its brief. We researched many funding routes, and grasped with both hands an opportunity that presented itself to apply to East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA). After a crash course in the language of economic regeneration, we applied for £2.6m and in June 2004 received the news that we had been successful.

It is only very recently that theatres have learnt the language of ?sustainable communities?, ?social inclusion? and ?spatial sustainability?. However, we have proved that the money from government to sources such as the regional development agencies and the Sub-Regional Strategies is wholly available to arts organisations that can translate their usual funding application-speak into a new language. ?Indirect outcomes?, ?enterprise and innovation? and ?supplementary direct outputs? replace the more familiar ?drama workshops in schools?, ?artistic residencies? and ?bums on seats?.

In June 2004 we also learnt that our second application to HLF had been successful, and in October 2004 ACE finally confirmed that we would received the grant of £6.5m, earmarked all those years ago. By this time we had also bitten the bullet on the timing of the project, and reluctantly accepted that we would lose the 2005/06 pantomime season. In addition to the EMDA application, our partnership funding target had increased to £1.69m. In our quest to reach this target we have crossed the county making presentations, writing applications, doing all we could to convince people that the contribution the theatres make to regional life was of huge import and worth investing in. Our success at reaching this target has astonished some that did not think that there was ?that kind of money? in Northamptonshire.

We have been successful in raising funds from the usual sources one might expect (Borough and County Council, trusts, foundations, corporate bodies) but also from steward ?sing-a-thons?, sponsored boomerangs (branded to remind patrons to come back when we re-open) and our seat naming campaign that changes with key calendar dates ? ?Give yourself an Easter treat, name a Royal and Derngate seat? and so on.

The past six months have seen costs rise further. However, our theatres are now shrouded in hoardings, having been handed over to the construction firm. We found yet more funding sources for the additions to the project, such as £500,000 from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and of the £14m project cost we now have less than £200,000 to raise. There have been moments of high drama and deep despair along the way, but nonetheless, new and surprising funding opportunities have allowed us to start realising our dream.