The Save Aberdeen Arts Centre campaign is one of three finalists for Fundraising Campaign of the Year.
When the Save Aberdeen Arts Centre campaign launched in May 2025, the team behind it had been in their roles for about five minutes. They had no budget. No agency. Two weeks to pull something together. The building that has housed grassroots arts in Aberdeen for over 60 years needed £660,000 to survive, and nobody was coming to do it for them.
So they did it themselves. The whole thing ran on local media coverage, social media, and word of mouth from people actually care about what they’re sharing. Over the months that followed, the campaign raised more than £158,000. The community made it very clear it wasn’t ready to let the place go.
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What the judges noticed
That campaign has now been shortlisted for Fundraising Campaign of the Year at the 2026 National Fundraising Awards, one of three finalists. The judges highlighted something you don’t hear much in fundraising: the team made staff wellbeing a priority throughout. For a campaign born out of genuine urgency, with people working long hours under real pressure, that’s worth noting.
Julia Smith, the centre’s fundraising manager, said: “None of us expected to be in the position to launch a campaign of this scale with so little notice, and we have been overwhelmed by the community support.”
She’s clear-eyed about where things stand, too. The £158,000 raised so far is significant, but the three-year target is £660,000. The shortlisting is a milestone, not a finish line. Winners will be announced in London in June.
Why this matters here
POST has been following this story since the campaign launched. Aberdeen Arts Centre is the kind of venue that holds a city’s creative life together in ways most people don’t think about until it’s threatened. More than 35 local performing groups use its stage every year. Its Children’s Theatre, opened in the 1950s, was the first of its kind in the UK. That history doesn’t protect itself.
The shortlisting is a reminder that some of the most effective fundraising happens in places where people are working with what they’ve got. No consultants, no strategy decks. A small team, a real deadline, and a community that showed up.
If you want to support the campaign, you can find out more and donate on the Aberdeen Arts Centre website.
