Our relationship to money – Staying independent
In this blog Rising’s Co-Director, Jess, talks about Rising’s relationship to money, and why it’s important for keeping us innovative, independent and radical.
Group shot of our Board members on our away day
During our August of Rest this year, we thought and talked about money quite a lot. We’re not alone as it’s a topic at the front of a lot of people’s minds right now as costs rise but wages don’t. Business-wise, we’ve seen the struggles of organisations coming out of Covid or more acutely the post-Covid emergency funds for closed buildings and temporary redistribution.
Money is always a big topic at Rising Arts Agency. The ‘Agency’ of it all means we’re not afraid to talk about it, demand it and know what we’re worth. In fact, it’s pretty much the core of what we do. To be an innovator we need a level of independence from constraining financial structures and funders that are not always caught up to the future we’re aiming for.
The Rising board doing some brainstorming and dreaming at this years Away Day.
AN ABUNDANCE MINDSET
Being simultaneously an agency and a not-for-profit means that we’re closely linked to the ebbs and flows of money in the sector and often locally in Bristol. We benefited from the abundance of ‘guilt money’ in the wake of Black Lives Matter and we also felt the scarcity of having had projects paused and postponed due to delays in funding from both the Arts Council and Bristol City Council. Since we began, the refrain from the cultural sector has always been that there’s ‘no money’ but our entire business model proves that there is – it’s just not distributed fairly.
And whilst there are institutions with turnovers 10x Rising – what we do with the money we receive is exponential. People are often surprised how small the team is for the level and quality of our output but we also take time to rest and reflect so we’re not playing into the grind mindset that still permeates so many creative work practices.
THE RISING ALLIANCE
Despite earning independent income through our agency work and consultancy, we don’t often talk about the fact that we also accept donations. This was actually one of the first things I worked on at Rising as a freelancer back in 2017 and yet it took until 2020 for us to launch it in response to the demand from people wanting to support our work during Covid, the BLM protests and people wanting to pay it forward to young creatives.
It’s funny how intentional things can seem looking back when in the moment a lot of it is just guts. We looked at tons of different membership models, but the one that felt right was the most open – pay what you can for as long as you can – with no ‘tiers’ of importance or access. The most co-operative model we could think of was what we sort of accidentally landed on. And in hindsight it speaks to everything we stand for – making people question what they’re able to give, long term relationships and support, low barriers of entry.
So as Olu, our new Storyteller, settles in you’ll probably hear more about the fact that you can (and should!) support Rising by donating to us monthly, but just know that it’s on your terms. Your cash keeps us independent, innovative and enables us to work with, alongside and question the money systems as they currently exist.
Some young creatives who came to our community picnic back in July
Thank you for reading this. If you want to support us to share our ways of working across the sector and beyond, please consider joining the Rising Alliance or increasing your regular donation.
