Unexpected (but very positive) consequences of Giving Culture

With the 71^st Sydney Film Festival starting next week, Giving Culture, the corporate gift voucher program we launched in December 2022, is bearing some unexpected consequences.

Giving Culture was created in response to the COVID-19 restrictions and the impact that had on our arts and cultural institutions.

With shows and performances limited or cancelled during the pandemic, every on of these organisations and the people connected with them were negatively impacted in multiple ways.

We wanted to establish a program that would assist in the sustainability and vitality of the not-for-profit arts sector and potentially open these organisations up to new audiences and new revenue streams.

We also wanted to replicate for the wider community the experiences our small Explore Communications team enjoyed using our staff ‘Christmas bonuses’ each year. This bonus took the form of an arts subscription, giving us tickets to performances during the following year.

Last year we gave culture vouchers as Christmas gifts to all the people who had worked for us during the year. Four of those vouchers were recently redeemed for SFF packages and then something quite surprising and special happened.

We knew that Giving Culture’s product made a unique and meaningful gift for individuals, but what we didn’t counter for was the bonding and collaborative experience these four vouchers created.

By redeeming culture vouchers for an SFF experience, it gets put towards a Flexipass – where you can purchase tickets for multiple films, booking up to four tickets per session. As four of us had redeemed for a Flexipass, we all got together to discuss which films we wanted to see and then each person used their own Flexipass to book multiple tickets to the one session based on who else was keen to go.

As a result, together with our partners, I know for sure that we are all going to Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film Kinds of Kindness, and different combinations of people are going to a selection of other films across the two weeks of the festival.

What’s great about this is it’s moved the idea of Giving Culture beyond just an individual experience to a collective one, and extended the connections our team have beyond the workplace – in a way that is also contributing to the health of our cultural sector. For a number of our voucher recipients, it will be the first time attending the Sydney Film Festival, and I’m sure they would love to repeat the experience for years to come.