Backstage Trust

Backstage Trust is an independent grant-making trust established in 2012 with a mission to champion live performing arts and music, enabling them to flourish amid limited public support. Rooted in the transformative power of live performance, their values emphasize access, diversity, inclusion, artistic excellence, and professional development, believing catalytic funding fosters resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability. They prioritize partnerships with arts charities demonstrating strong governance, safeguarding, and viability, intervening strategically to amplify impact through capacity building, unglamorous essentials, and community empowerment via creative expression.

They fund performing arts initiatives advancing young people’s engagement through theatre productions, music programmes, and youth jazz orchestras, community-led projects promoting participation, equality, and cohesion in under-represented areas, professional development for smaller and medium-scale arts organisations via consultancy, strategic fundraising, and governance strengthening, freelance arts community support including new writing commissions and core revenue needs, and capital interventions like accessibility improvements, technical infrastructure upgrades, and sustainability enhancements for theatres and performance spaces. Supported activities encompass staging inclusive live events, talent nurturing for emerging artists, outreach fostering diversity in performing arts, and resilient programming addressing sector challenges, prioritizing interventions that build artistic capacity, prevent exclusion, and deliver transformative cultural experiences for diverse audiences and creators.

They exclude funding for individuals, personal training fees, or non-arts activities, focusing instead on registered charities and community interest companies with proven safeguarding and project impact. Distinctive for specialist performing arts expertise, willingness to fund critical yet overlooked elements like technical upgrades and freelance resilience, and emphasis on under-supported communities, rural venues, and equality-driven projects, they seek organisations advancing inclusion, opportunity, and professional growth in theatre, music, and live art across England, Wales, and select UK-wide initiatives.