Sinfonia Cymru
Brief to develop a marketing and fundraising strategy
May 2015
About us
Sinfonia Cymru is a young and innovative chamber orchestra from Wales. The orchestra
is made up of professional musicians in the early stages of their careers and is the first
and only orchestra of its kind to be revenue-funded by the Arts Council of Wales. This
formal distinction was made in recognition of the orchestra’s artistic excellence,
fundamental commitment to supporting young professional musicians and bringing worldclass music to communities across Wales.
Sinfonia Cymru also works with a range of funding partners to help support every aspect
of the orchestra’s mission and activities including Colwinston Charitable Trust, Esmee
Fairbairn Foundation, Foyle Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation and Paul Hamlyn
Foundation. Find out more about Sinfonia Cymru at www.sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Context
In 2013, Sinfonia Cymru introduced a new chamber orchestra model for Wales, working
in innovative ways appropriate to new generations of players and audiences. As a direct
result of this new model we have identified major opportunities to expand our work in the
key areas of artistic and digital innovation, participation and sustainability: a new, futuredriven platform for young musicians delivered in part via a renegotiated partnership with
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
This opportunity will make Sinfonia Cymru more resilient, ensuring output is reflective of
what’s needed. However, it needs to be underpinned by robust marketing and fundraising
activities defined through a single strategy, ensuring the message is clear and always
aligned. Participants, consumers and supporters, knowing our audience and targeting
communications to encourage an active dialogue with them will inform our future creative
direction. In order to be relevant and maintain that relevance, the orchestra must deepen
its relationship with them.
Sinfonia Cymru has developed rapidly but its marketing and, to a lesser extent, specific
aspects of fundraising functions have struggled to keep up. In a small but increasingly
busy organisation, the result is a piecemeal approach to marketing and fundraising more ‘fire fighting’ than ‘big thinking’. Sinfonia Cymru is on an ambitious creative path but
without a structured plan to support that vision through improved marketing and
fundraising, it will struggle to leverage increased earned income and private investment
from the public funding it receives.
Media Centre, S4C, Parc Ty Glas, Cardiff, CF14 5DU
sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Registered charity number 1058196
02920 754 556
contact@sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Meanwhile, a lack of insight into audiences and their motivations means Sinfonia Cymru
struggles to target communications to particular segments with a defined ‘voice’
contributing to a sense of confused identity. Targeted communications and campaigns
will be even more essential as the orchestra continues to develop new presentations of
its work to attract targeted audiences.
Following research into the current Friends and Patrons schemes it became apparent
that Sinfonia Cymru needed a review of all its support sources. In its current form, the
orchestra risks an over-reliance on income from Arts Council Wales, trusts and
foundations and a shrinking pool of supporters, as the traditional ‘Friends’ scheme loses
favour among younger generations.
Sinfonia Cymru, at a point of transition, is poised to look towards a more collaborative
model both artistically and organisationally. Sustainability and innovation are at the heart
of this new approach and in order to achieve more, Sinfonia Cymru looks to expand and
consolidate marketing and fundraising activities. Developing this strategy provides the
means to support this opportunity to move forward.
The brief
Sinfonia Cymru wishes to commission a combined fundraising and marketing strategy to
support its business and organisational model. The development of this strategy is
additional to the existing resources of the organisation and will require an external
consultant or consultancy to carry out the work whilst drawing on the knowledge and
expertise of the current staff and board. We expect the work to be undertaken between
June and August 2015.
The strategy will embed development activity within a structured marketing plan, aligning
communications across the organisation with the purpose of simultaneously building and
deepening relationships between the orchestra and its supporters (current and new)
across Wales and beyond and increasing income generation and fundraising activity.
We have identified opportunities to diversify income streams further, building alliances
with strategic partners across the arts, education and corporate sectors embedding
fundraising structures within projects from their inception, rather than fundraising against
pre-planned activity.
An integrated fundraising and marketing strategy is required to:
 give us a greater understanding of current and potential audiences and their
motivations and needs;
 tailor and target communications to individuals, businesses and musicians,
attracting support to develop and diversify income streams;
Media Centre, S4C, Parc Ty Glas, Cardiff, CF14 5DU
sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Registered charity number 1058196
02920 754 556
contact@sinfoniacymru.co.uk
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unify and align Sinfonia Cymru’s message and mission with its communications.
research into appropriate CRM systems to manage audience data (our current
system lacks the sophistication to use audience data effectively).
identify and provide the framework for potential new income streams
support the Board and executive team to deliver more effectively by equipping
both with the means to develop the organisation’s ability to advocate on its behalf.
This project is about how Sinfonia Cymru communicates with its audience to market and
promote its work across Wales. Specific research into Welsh speaking, and other diverse
audiences, will need to be undertaken exploring how we can tailor our communication,
giving more people the opportunity to engage and participate in classical music.
It will serve to deepen relationships, encouraging audiences to invest not only their hearts
and minds in the orchestra but also their money- relieving pressure on revenue funds,
developing individual giving, diversifying other income streams and contributing to the
security of Sinfonia Cymru in future years.
The strategy will help us make a bigger impact on the people of Wales. Relevant
messages and crafted languague encourages reciprocal dialogue involving stakeholders
more and influencing programming and activity, enabling Sinfonia Cymru to deliver
classical music to more people in ways that are useful to them.
It will positively impact the development of both classical music and the arts in Wales by
providing an ambitious yet sound approach towards:
 attracting more public interest in our art-form;
 new marketing strategies supporting fresh presentation formats to suit different
people and new audiences;
 exploiting fundraising platforms (crowdfunding/online campaigns) currently
relatively unused by the classical music sector in Wales;
 Identifying and pioneering new fundraising ideas bespoke to Sinfonia Cymru but
with potential for further exploitation by the sector.
Sinfonia Cymru is trailblazing through its new model that shares artistic decision-making
with musicians. That in itself is ahead of its time in the sector and is considered a
demonstration of genuine, long lasting innovation in classical music. We therefore need
an equally ambitious marketing and fundraising strategy that will support core innovation
through increased audiences and more diverse investment streams, and prove an
innovation in itself with equally ground-breaking ideas. New ideas about how an
orchestra can market what it does and fundraise have the potential to provide a powerful
legacy for Sinfonia Cymru, classical music and Wales.
Media Centre, S4C, Parc Ty Glas, Cardiff, CF14 5DU
sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Registered charity number 1058196
02920 754 556
contact@sinfoniacymru.co.uk
The project will be overseen by Sinfonia Cymru board members Lucy Stout, Matt
Carwardine-Palmer and Peter Bellingham and Chief Executive Sophie Lewis, with all
staff actively contributing. Bizzy Day will work in a freelance capacity representing
fundraising in consultation with an external marketing agency/consultant.
Submitting a proposal
Your proposal should include:
 your approach to undertaking the brief, within the time and budget stated below. You
can submit a proposal with variations on the budget and time limit in order to meet the
brief within your own circumstances, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to
accommodate this;
 your experience of working across the arts and cultural sectors, in particular with any
experience of working in Wales and/or with orchestras;
 demonstrable understanding of the purpose and potential of Sinfonia Cymru’s
ambitions for this consultancy and how you think they will benefit from your approach;
 your prior experience in writing marketing and/or fundraising strategies for
arts/cultural organisations;
 short biographies of the consultant(s) who would be working on this project;
 an outline breakdown of your proposed working schedule on this project;
 two references for previous relevant consultancy projects.
Proposals should be emailed to sophie@sinfoniacymru.co.uk by 5pm on Friday 22 May
2015.
Project fee
A maximum fee of £5,000 + VAT is available for this consultancy. A further £150 is
available towards travel costs for the consultant / consultancy for meetings with Sinfonia
Cymru in Cardiff. Expenses beyond this level will need to be absorbed within the fee.
Key dates
Activity
Deadline for proposals
Interviews in Cardiff
Contract issued / work commences
Interim meeting to discuss progress
Presentation to Sinfonia Cymru Board
Delivery of final report
Media Centre, S4C, Parc Ty Glas, Cardiff, CF14 5DU
sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Registered charity number 1058196
When
Friday 22 May 2015
w/c 25 May 2015
w/c 1 June 2015
w/c 29 June 2015
Early September 2015
Friday 25 September 2015
02920 754 556
contact@sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Further information
For an informal discussion about the work or for any further information, please contact
Sophie Lewis, Chief Executive, Sinfonia Cymru (sophie@sinfoniacymru.co.uk), or call
029 2075 4556.
Media Centre, S4C, Parc Ty Glas, Cardiff, CF14 5DU
sinfoniacymru.co.uk
Registered charity number 1058196
02920 754 556
contact@sinfoniacymru.co.uk