Incubate

1. Ticketing revenues
2. Revenues from participating venues (the regular venue rent plus a contribution to the general festival)
3. Funding
   • Structural funding (2009-2012) by the city of Tilburg and the province Noord-Brabant
   • Project funding. In previous years by Mondriaan Foundation, BKKC, Bram, NBKS, Libra, NFPK+, 2018 Brabant; Cultural Capital Together, VSB Foundation, SNS Reaal, Norma Foundation, IMRO, Music Export Norway, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Jacques de Leeuw Foundation, Société Gavigniès, ZLTO and many others.
4. Sponsoring
   Incubate has a sponsoring policy with four targets:

• Revenues from local partners like Sounds record shop and Interpolis.
• Free ads and discounts from several media partners.
• Partnerships in marketing from companies like NS, XS4ALL and Vedett/Duvel.
• Research and development in a collaboration with media companies like Freshheads and Cre8ion lab.

Incubate is aware of its relative high amount of overhead costs. It’s a time consuming formula and the artist fees are relatively low. In contrast to other festivals, which normally work with a small amount of expensive artists, we work with a lot of relatively cheap artists. This is a lot more time-consuming. We don’t work with the bigger agencies that deliver standard packages, but invest a lot of time on artist and audience connections and research. Besides that, Incubate works with a lot of venues and other partner organizations. This process needs a personal touch. That’s why we also have a relative high amount of marketing employees. We work with 250 artists, an amount a regular venue books in one year. The personal touch that’s part of our marketing tactics also cost relatively more time then the prefab advertising.

The structural funding from the city of Tilburg and the province of Noord-Brabant cover the organizational costs. The program and marketing are being covered by ticket revenues, revenues from venues, and (project) funding. One of our goals is to get national structural funding and European funding so we’re less dependent on all sorts of project funding.

Sponsoring is a very important element of our business strategy, in terms of fundraising as well as marketing. At Incubate an intern fulfilled scientific research to different types of sponsoring models and co-marketing alliances. With this, Incubate will acquire the necessary theoretical knowledge to improve sponsor relationships. Incubate consciously chooses its sponsors. A partnership should incorporate two organizations that want to be associated with each other. Goals and ethics have to correspond. That’s why we aim for co-marketing alliances. Incubate believes in the synergy of such a partnership when both parties involved have a pro-active mentality.

Incubate still depends on funding. Investments are a part of the job if you’re running a relatively new organization. It’s also part of the job if you’re running an arts festival. As a cultural entrepreneur, Incubate successfully manages to set up sponsor deals with brands like Freshheads, Duvel/Vedett, Boerderij 't Schop, NS and XS4ALL. The ticket price of Incubate is based on the price of similar events like State X, FabrIQ and November Music. Of course our overall program is bigger, but as a visitor you can only see one artist at once.

Incubate is a rapidly growing organization. In 2007 we started with a budget of 125.000 euro. In 2009 our budget has grown to 500.000 euro (300.000 in 2008). In 2007 Incubate was an ad hoc volunteer organization. We try to stabilize the organization by professionalizing and investing on quality. Incubate receives structural funding from the city of Tilburg and the province of Noord-Brabant. It has structural relationships with venues and sponsors and has a dedicated crowd.

Incubate works according to the guidelines of Cultural Governance and is being controlled by an accountant.