Case study

Jan 27, 2026

Wild Arts: Bringing Clarity to Complex Fundraising

is case study explores how Wild Arts moved from fragmented spreadsheets to a shared, structured system, bringing clarity to fundraising and helping the whole team work with confidence.

Wild Arts is a touring opera company with a distinctive approach, bringing chamber concerts and operas to unexpected spaces across the UK, from churches and historic venues to outdoor settings. Behind every performance is a small, highly committed team managing a wide range of responsibilities, from producing tours to securing the funding that makes the work possible.

With no large development department or central office, fundraising activity needed to be flexible, visible, and easy to manage. This case study explores how Wild Arts moved from fragmented spreadsheets to a shared, structured system, bringing clarity to fundraising and helping the whole team work with confidence.

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The Limits of Spreadsheets for Growing Fundraising Activity

As fundraising activity expanded, Wild Arts found that spreadsheets were no longer fit for purpose. Separate documents were used to track private donors, trusts and foundations, and council funding, with no single view of progress or priorities.

Tracking the lifecycle of applications became increasingly difficult. Deadlines, follow-ups, and outcomes were spread across files, making it easy to lose context as projects evolved. While other tools were explored, they either lacked integration with box office and marketing data or were too limited to support trust and statutory funding workflows.

For a small team, this created unnecessary friction and made collaboration harder than it needed to be.

Choosing Projects to Bring Structure to Fundraising

Wild Arts joined Ticketsolve specifically to use Projects as the foundation for their fundraising and development work.

The team needed a way to manage donors, trusts, and council funding that reflected the reality of their work: overlapping projects, long timelines, and limited capacity. Rather than adding another standalone system, Projects offered a single environment where fundraising could be planned, tracked, and reviewed alongside ticketing and marketing activity.

Using a clear, Kanban-style workflow, Wild Arts can now see progress across private donors, trusts, and council funding at a glance, making priorities clear and reducing reliance on spreadsheets or me

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Connecting Fundraising with Audience Insight

Because Projects sits within Ticketsolve, fundraising activity could be directly informed by audience and box office data.

This made it possible to identify regular attendees who were not yet donors and include them thoughtfully in development activity. Instead of working in isolation, fundraising became connected to real patterns of engagement, strengthening the relationship between audiences and long-term support.

For a touring organisation with limited capacity, this integration reduced duplication and opened up new, practical ways to grow support.

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Supporting Collaboration in a Small, Distributed Team

With no shared office, visibility was essential. Projects became a central workspace where everyone, from producers to marketing, could see what was happening across fundraising and development.

This shared view reduced reliance on email updates and handovers, helping the team stay aligned even when working remotely. Fundraising stopped being held by one person or one document and instead became part of the organisation’s wider rhythm.

Crucially, the system remained flexible, well suited to the realities of a small team managing many moving parts.

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For Wild Arts, clarity wasn’t about adding more tools, it was about bringing work together.

By centralising fundraising within Ticketsolve, the organisation moved from fragmented spreadsheets to a shared, connected way of working. Fundraising, marketing, and ticketing now inform one another, supporting better decision-making and more sustainable development.

With clearer visibility and fewer admin barriers, the team can focus on what matters most: building relationships, securing funding, and continuing to bring ambitious opera to communities across the UK.

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