Skepticism about private gifts lives and flourishes in Norway. Even in 2020.

The gift reinforcement scheme for research and culture is now in jeopardy.

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Now it will no longer be profitable to raise large private funds for Norwegian research. Maybe it’s also a joke about private gifts to culture.

Is very surprising.

The government proposes in the state budget, in passing and without justification, to eliminate the particularly successful reinforcement of gifts scheme in the investigation. In 2014, it provided inspiration to create a similar scheme for cultural life. Unfortunately, he doesn’t live with much security either.

Will affect basic research

The gift boost means that private gifts of NOK 3 million or more bring in an additional 25% from the state.

Billion-dollar donations from businesses, foundations, and organizations in recent years alone have brought in more than 300 million from the state. It is good for the spread of power that money comes from various sources.

Therefore, it is surprising that it is a bourgeois government, with the support of the Center Party, which rejects a scheme that has strengthened cooperation between business and academia.

Everything indicates that the proposal will receive a majority. The cancellation will affect basic research at universities, part of the activities that are not strictly controlled by programs, write the rectors of four of the country’s largest universities in a column in Khrono.

According to the government, the scheme will be suspended because it is “difficult to document” leading to gifts that would not otherwise be given. Good. How about asking donors? Private donors that the university’s presidents have been in contact with say the gift booster is a prerequisite for them to donate.

Private funds are far behind

But there is more negative news to come: the culture gift reinforcement scheme is also in jeopardy.

It has been a success since it was introduced in 2014. I was involved in its preparation as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Culture. At the time, there were very few in the cultural bureaucracy who believed in the scheme, even though we started with booster funds of only NOK 10 million per year. year. “There is no culture that provides private funds for cultural purposes!” was objected.

Well, the whole purpose of the scheme was precisely to reestablish and strengthen a culture for him. Today, mutual funds have increased sevenfold, to NOK 70 million per year. Hundreds of millions of private crowns have been delivered in just five years.

It has become a great public / private splicing team. But the plan has also been highly debated and criticized. Isn’t it much easier for larger organizations to attract donors? And why are institutions in northern Norway unable to get more gifts?

These are legitimate questions, but the answer may be that someone needs to try a little harder. Private funds are a long way off for everyone.

Much needed in the cultural economy

Then there’s also the question of whether the scheme has produced enough entirely new donors and created a broader culture of philanthropy. The answer to that is not very clear. Non-profit foundations, for example, do not need gift reinforcement as an independent motivation to donate. This is our main task.

The gift reinforcement scheme is still very much needed in a cultural economy that is so privileged dominated by public money, in addition to everything we use from our own pockets. However, the red-green parties will completely eliminate it in the field of culture as well. This applies to both the Labor Party and the Center Party, probably also the People’s Socialist Party.

Therefore, skepticism of private accessories lives and flourishes in Norway, even in the year 2020. It can make Norway an even more public-obsessed society. It is not exactly what we need, neither during nor after the crown.