ActDrop Angels
In recent years, many small and non-commercial theatres and fringe production companies have lost access to funding.
Even where funding still exists, the sums available have been reduced considerably as local councils and other providers have had to slash their budgets.
Austerity has left many small theatres as well as fringe production companies struggling to survive.
We want to help replace some of those lost funds, using a simple and communal mechanism where we can all help fringe production companies, non-profits and small, independent theatres to thrive.
Our business model
Like any other business, we have to cover our costs.
But we also want to make a significant and meaningful contribution to the industry in which we work.
So, we operate a different kind of business model where a proportion of our income is put into a fund called "ActDrop Angels" to provide finance for organisations and individuals in the theatre industry.
That means, for example, if you advertise with us or buy tickets from our tickets site, you will be supporting theatre through our ActDrop Angels fund.
Each year in the future, we'll set a target for the amount of our income we'll aim to donate to the ActDrop Angels fund.
Our target this year is 20% of all our income.
You can read more about our business philosophy here.
Objectives
ActDrop Angels isn't just about funding. We want to encourage and support talent and theatre in general.
For example, we'd like to help foster good practice in production techniques by publishing guides and information.
We'll also help publicise shows and events wherever we can, and support theatre charities, campaigns and educational ventures.
Our plans
At present, we are developing our strategy and policies, and generally getting ActDrop Angels organised.
We've put together an independent steering committee of three people with experience of
- acting and stage production
- finance and business organisation
- arts marketing.
Working with our team, we'll finalise our plans in the next few weeks, then we'll publish them in detail.
And we'll tell you more about how you can help us to support theatre in the UK.
You'll find regular updates in our news bulletins about how our plans are progressing.
So, pop back regularly to check how we're doing.