Cultural enterprises face new financing challenges based on trust and project quality

Cultural enterprises are confronting deep challenges driven by their actual reliability, a concept known as affordance. Traditionally, only business actors and their ties to the credit system were considered, but after the financial crisis revealed the fragility of finance kings, the focus shifted to a broader definition of enterprise encompassing social, environmental, and cultural vocations. To innovate and grow, these enterprises must rely on third-party finance balanced with equity, as small scale is no longer sufficient and networks may be the right path. The concept of long-term has changed, especially for cultural enterprises that bet on human and creative capital; three years now represent a stabilization horizon, requiring intermediate goals. Presenting projects to banks or investment funds differs from dealing with banking foundations: understanding who evaluates and with what criteria is crucial. Ultimately, people finance people, though numbers end up in databases processed by algorithms. Funders must also learn to identify worthy projects, accepting the risk that makes banking and enterprise meaningful.