Julie's Bicycle BFI Sustainable Screen Resource Hub

Key questions

What banking, pension and insurance schemes and services do you use?
Are they using your money to invest in fossil fuels and where do they stand on fossil fuel divestment and ethical investment more broadly?
What can you do move the money managed on your behalf away from fossil fuel investment and into more environmentally responsible and ethical investment?
Do you already have a policy or guidelines on fundraising, sponsorships and donations, or some red lines on who won’t accept money from?
What can you do to develop fund-raising opportunities with funders, foundations, sponsors or donors with strong environmental and ethical credentials?

Make your money matter. Move it away from ties with fossil fuel investment and environmentally damaging activities into investment and activity which is better for planet and people.

Top Tips

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Find out where you bank(s) stand on divestment from fossil fuels and more broadly on ethical investment.

Explore your options for switching bank or some or all of your banking services to a bank which does not invest in fossil fuels or is committed to fossil fuel divestment and ethical investment more broadly. Good With Money and Switchit are good places to start.

If you have a pension scheme, find out what type of pension it is, how it works, what to ask and how to push for change. Make My Money Matter and Good With Money are good places to start.

If your organisation sits within a local authority or university, find out their position on fossil fuel divestment. Divest UK provides information on local authorities.

Find out what your options are to change to pension scheme or fund(s) which do not invest in fossil fuels or are divesting from fossil fuels, encourage pension scheme trustees or providers to do more, or move to a different pension provider. Make My Money Matter’s UK Pension Providers Climate Action Report is a good place to start.

Find out where your insurance provider stands on divestment from fossil fuels and more broadly on ethical investment.

Explore your options for switching to an insurance provider which does not use its insurance premiums to invest in fossil fuels or is committed to divestment and ethical investment more broadly.

Let employees and freelancers know what you are doing and what they can do as individuals to switch banks, pension schemes, funds and insurance companies committed to fossil fuel divestment. See, for example, the information Equity for a Green New Deal provided to its members on How to Green Your Equity Pension.

If you already have an ethical fundraising policy, or guidelines on who you will or prefer to accept money from and who you won’t or prefer not to accept money from – consider and formalise your position on money tied to fossil fuels.

Develop an ethical fundraising policy or guidelines. See for example the Arts Marketing Association’s Guidelines for Creating Ethical Guidelines for Fundraising.

Explore opportunities for developing new relationships with funders, foundations, sponsors or donors whose money isn’t tied to or made from fossil fuels and environmentally damaging activities and with strong environmental commitment, values and credentials.

Collaborate with the wider sector to engage audiences and stakeholders in issues relating to fossil fuel divestment and sustainable finance.

Money & Finance

Resources

Black and white image of a sign being held up with a text that says Planet Over Profit

Julie's Bicycle - Counting on Culture: How to stop financing the environmental crises

Report

This guide, develop under Arts Council England's Enviromental Programme, explains how finances, including those of many creative and cultural organisations, are linked to the climate and ecological crisis; what divestment can achieve; where the money comes from, and; what cultural organisations can do to stop financing the climate and ecological crisis.

Find out more

Image of coins stacked up in columns, with small plants growing out of each column, with a jar of coins furthest on the right

Julie's Bicycle - Financing the Arts

Video / Webinar

This webinar, delivered under Arts Council England's Environmental Programme, explores how divestment; how we can rethink our organisational finances; and what we should ask of cultural funding structures and philanthropy to enable a just transition. It features insights from Chris Garrad of Culture Unstained, a campaigning and research organisation which works to end fossil fuel sponsporship of culture, Naome Naidoo of Chayn and advisor to Make My Money Matter and Money Movers, and Immy Kaur of CIVIC SQUARE.

Julie's Bicycle - Putting a Price on Carbon

Guide

This guide, developed under Arts Council England’s Environmental Programme, explores the pros and cons of carbon offsetting, most often used by creative and cultural organisations to offset the impacts of business and audience travel - and alternative approaches to pricing in carbon.

Find out more

Person's Left Hand Holding Green Leaf Plant

Good with Money

Guide

Good with Money provides a range of resources for both businesses and individuals on a range of topics from ethical business bank accounts, to sustainable pensions for the self-employed and ethical savings accounts.

find out more

Make My Money Matter - SME Pensions Guide

Guide

Make My Money Matter, co-founded by Richard Curtis and Jo Cortlett, works to transform the financial system, so it puts people and planet on a par with profit and provides resources, information and guidance to help individuals and businesses who want to move their money from the destructive, harmful investments of the past, into those which help build a better future. Their SME pensions guide outlines how a pension fund can be net zero, why net zero pensions are good for business, and the practical steps SMEs can take to move towards a net zero pension.

find out more

Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy - Now, New and Next: Fundraising philanthropy and the environmental agenda

Report

This report explores fundraising philanthropy and the environmental agenda from different perspectives including developments in green philanthropy, funding for the cultural sector’s response to the climate emergency, and the role of corporate sponsorship.