Over 20 years helping cultural organisations, charities and local authorities reach their goals on income generation and community engagement

paul hudson associates

cultural development & fundraising

Crowd at an outdoor music festival stage at night

Cultural Development

Working with local authorities on long term strategic development of their cultural sector, audiences and communities

  • major fundraising bids & campaigns
  • relationship building
  • community engagement strategies
  • creative business support & training
The London Mozart Players with their instruments in front of a colourful tower block

Fundraising

Working with arts organisations and national charities to maximise income generation and establish lasting relationships with funders and donors

  • three year fundraising strategies
  • arts council and other public funding
  • bids to major trusts and foundations
  • high level donors and crowdfunding
Performer in an ornate gold and red headdress

Events

Working with major venues, arts organisations and national charities on the developmen of unique and bespoke events

  • galas
  • fundraising events
  • launches and openings
  • charity auctions

‘Paul Hudson transformed the fortunes of a vulnerable unfunded orchestra to one that is financially buoyant’

Julia Desbruslais
Executive Director, London Mozart Players

‘From the initial concept brief to final execution Paul’s attention to detail and creative flair combined with his deep understanding of ‘getting the tone right’ for the myriad of audiences we had to thank and cater for was indispensable’

Neil Chandler,
Venue & Artistic Director, Fairfield Halls

Clients

Local Authorities, Arts Organisations and National Charities

Contact

Cultural Development

In 2017 Croydon’s cultural sector had a very low profile, cultural organisations were working independently and in silos and the borough was suffering from years of under-investment. I was brought in by Paula Murray, Croydon’s newly appointed Creative Director to help develop the sector and reshape its relationship with national arts organisations and funders.

We worked together to bring Talawa, Artist Studio Company , Dance Umbrella and London South Bank University to the borough and to establish a new Croydon Culture network which now has over 600 members. These were the building blocks for three successful bids, GLA’s Creative Enterprise Zone status in 2019, DCMS’ Youth Performance Partnership status in 2020 and the London Borough of Culture title in 2023 - bringing over £3million in to the borough.

Our relationship with Arts Council England has been transformed with annual investment trebling from 2017 to 2020 and the announcement in 2021 of Croydon’s inclusion in their new Priority Places programme which will see that investment continue to rise.

This is Croydon, our winning bid for the 2023 title contains 10 flagship events with partners like The BRIT School and Live Nation, a £1 million open access fund to support community led events and development programmes supporting artists from disadvantaged communities, social prescribing initiatives supporting people with mental health issues and new Jobs & Training initiatives for young people.

Fundraising

In 2014 with the orchestra facing imminent closure five players stepped forward to take over the reigns and the London Mozart Players became the first orchestra in the UK to be both artistically and administratively player led.

I was brought in to help develop and implement a fundraising strategy and immediately realised that they had not been making best use of two very important assets: a very supportive royal patron, Prince Edward and a small number of hugely loyal ‘Friends of LMP’ that had never been actively cultivated. Three years later, we had an annual fundraising event at Buckingham Palace and annual donations had more than trebled to over £500,000.

It also became clear that LMP had not been actively using it’s position of resident orchestra for Croydon to re-establish relationships with ACE and other funders and that the majority of residents were unaware of their presence in the borough. With the added difficulty that due to refurbishment their home in Fairfield Halls was going to be closed for four years we developed LMP on the Move – a community development project taking classical music to non traditional venues including Boxpark, Croydon Pride, a rooftop carpark and Ikea. Designed specifically to bring ACE funding back after the previous management had soured relationships, we purposely over delivered on a small grant of £12,400 in the first years successfully bringing ACE back in as a regular funder – ACE funding this year has been £85,000. Garfield Weston and Foyle Foundation have also come back on board as funders.

By 2019 turnover had more than trebled to £1.2 million, LMP’s local profile and national reputation had been transformed, concerts had increased from 15 a year to over 150, new artistic collaborations established with leading soloists including Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the orchestra was financially stable with reserves of over £400,000.

Events

After 4 years and £40 million refurbishment Fairfield Halls reopened in 2019. I worked with the new operators BH Live to develop a series of opening events to ensure that each of the very different communities and stakeholders had their moment in the spotlight: securing Dame Judi Dench to open the Ashcroft Playhouse with a new photo mural of her great friend Dame Peggy, inviting Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, to be guest of honour at the civic opening, working with LMP to sell out their black tie gala opening the main concert hall and devising with Alasdair Brown Events and black LGBTQ group Batty Mama a fabulous invitation only Arts Ball for 400 artists in the main foyer that ensured local artists and Croydon’s myriad of diverse communities were centre stage in the celebrations.

In 2012 whilst working with Booktrust on the development of their new Children’s Reading Fund I heard that The Shard were looking for a charity partner for their opening in February 2013. We contacted them via their PR agency and told them about the campaign to raise funds for books for looked after children. They were delighted to support and helped us put on an exclusive invitation only champagne reception at the top of the Shard in advance of the public opening (we had to carry the sofas, chairs and bar stools up the last 3 flights!). Guests were asked to make a minimum donation to attend and we also ran a charity auction that raised an additional £14,500 on the night.