1Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre.

2Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

About the survey.• The Africa Centre is a charitable trust based in 38 King Street, Covent Garden (London) [www.africacentre.org.uk]

• It is the pre-eminent arts and culture centre for the African Diaspora

• 38 King Street is the charity’s much loved home where it has been situated since its inception circa 50 years ago

• The charity’s Board of trustees recently decided to sell this historic building, the charity’s only asset

• This is a summary of findings from a survey conducted by the Save The Africa Centre (STAC) campaign [www.savetheafricacentre.com]

• This campaign was formed by Friends of the Africa Centre who believe that 38 King Street possesses unique, major and irreplaceable universal cultural heritage value and significance

• Significant momentum, at the highest levels of the UK and Africa’s social and political spectrum continues to build in support of this public campaign which has sought active participation by the wider community in reviewing the Board’s decision

• The campaign has built a petitioner base of over 4,000 people in just 4 months

• Supporters include several eminent persons as well as the African Union Group (representing the High Commissioners/Ambassadors of African nations in the UK), international academic bodies, and key figures including, members of the House of Lords and members of the Eminent Africans Group

• This survey sought to collect views and opinions from the wider community on:

- membership of the Africa Centre

- the wider community’s expectations of the Africa Centre

- suggestions on how greater participation by the wider community could be promoted

The results of the study were summarised by Adaoma Wosu. Adaoma is a PhD student at UCL, and an independent researcher.

She was approached by members of the STAC campaign to produce a review of the survey results.

She was not involved in the survey design or administration.

3Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

About the respondents.

• Over 10% of registered supporters on the STAC campaign’s database responded to the survey

• This represents an above average response rate

• Respondents between 45-55yrs formed the largest constituent age group

• There was little variation in the proportion of respondents aged between 25-35, 36-45 and 56-65, which indicates the wide age range with an interest and a willingness to participate in Africa Centre issues

• Most of the respondents were from London - 63%

• 26% were from the UK (i.e. outside London)

• 12% from outside the UK, illustrating how interest in the Africa Centre extends beyond the UK

4Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Willingness to pay membership fees¹.

• The purpose of this question was to give the Africa Centre an indication of potential revenue from membership fees

• 55% of respondents indicated willingness/could afford to pay a membership fee

• The largest category (29%) was between £25-50 a year

• At the other end of the spectrum only 3% indicated a willingness to pay over £500 per year

[¹] Respondents were given a range of between £0 -£2,000

5Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Membership expectations¹.

• Majority of respondents (60%) felt that being the first to hear about upcoming programming was a key part of membership

• Other membership benefits which were rated ‘very important’ in their category, included:

- opportunities to network (50%)

- discounted ticket fees to events and activities (50%)

• No real consensus on other membership benefits (e.g discounted meals or discounts to other Africa-related events - see Figure 1)

[¹] Where a significant majority of the respondents considered the service in question to be “very important”

6Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Figure 1.

7Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Respondents preferences for Africa Centre activities¹.

• The results in Figure 2 illustrate the wide range of interests respondents expressed in Africa Centre activities

• No one event dominates the other, however, the most popular activities were:

- politics and development events

- live music events

- art

- theatre

- film screenings

• Evenly spread interest (38% each) in:

- careers and profession related events and activities

- family and children’s events and activities

- business related events and activities

• This should be seen as a valuable starting point for discussions on relevant events which will maintain interest in the Centre

[¹] where a significant majority of the respondents considered the service in question to be “very important”

8Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Figure 2.

9Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Suggestions - fostering support.

• An open ended question was posed - over half of respondents answered

• Responses categorised by theme - each theme measured according to the number of times a response fell into its category (Figure 3)

• This gave an indication of the most popular areas suggested as offering potential through which the Africa Centre could foster support

• The suggestions for how the Africa Centre can foster support were categorised into the following themes:

- volunteering, (including offering their own services)

- fundraising, such as benefits by important artists

- sponsored runs

- auction off donations

- social enterprises

- funding sources

• Regarding funding sources respondents cited churches and African governments

• With respect to the latter, this signposts how important the community considers active engagement by the charity with High Commissions / Embassies and the African Union Heads of Mission in London

• Another common theme was networking, in which respondents listed potential collaborations with African Associations/Welfare Societies/Africa Churches and “continental and pan African visitors, particularly dignitaries and VIPs”, and reaching out to the Diaspora and the wealth of untapped potential they hold

10Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

In terms of internal support.

• … Africa Centre was urged to take a “modern African approach” fostering greater participation by the wider community and transparency of/by the governing body

• Some respondents requested that the governing body send regular updates to supporters (and members) and they attend consultation meetings

• PR/marketing - it was suggested the Africa Centre “publicise…at conferences, events and on forums for the UK's African communities”

• Lastly, respondents took the opportunity to add additional comments on activities the Africa Centre should host, such as:

- workshops and Q&A’s, after-screenings and theatre performances with Producers/Directors

- community fundraising events

11Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

Figure 3.

12Survey Results – Friends of the Africa Centre │ October 2011

And finally…

Words of support from one of the respondents:

“…There's such great potential for the space to really foster a strong, positive community of active and engaged Africanists (working in a diverse range of fields). This is what London is missing. Attending the V&A Afropolitans evening a couple of months ago - attended by over 5,000 people - there was a lot of talk about this: the need for more spaces to hold events to bring people together and celebrate, debate, create etc. in the interests of building a strong active positive community and furthering our continent”.