Art of Business: Introducing ArtsPay

Guest Work Agency is proud to have recently signed up to new payment processing platform ArtsPay. ArtsPay is a “profit-for-purpose” payments solution that gives back to Australian artists and small arts organisations every time a customer makes a purchase using ArtsPay - either in-store or online - via the ArtsPay Foundation, an artist-led organisation. 

In this Art of Business story, ArtsPay co-founder Marc Goldenfein talks about how businesses can affect real change at a time when "making the world a better place" is no longer enough.

Benefits of better business

After a very tough couple of years, businesses and organisations should be excited about returning back to a semi normal state. There seems to be an optimistic tone in conversations about the future that I haven’t experienced in a while.

For me though, the idea of going back to business as usual doesn’t sit particularly well. I don’t need to point out the obvious issues consuming business leaders as we adjust to this new normal,. , so instead I’d like to suggest that we now have a unique opportunity to take stock, make changes and dream a little differently. If nothing changes, then we will look back and wonder why we didn’t adjust the way we did things, and make more significant changes to the structures that will affect the trajectory of our environment, work, life, society and economy. This is a chance to imagine new systems and structures that create better businesses, and better societies.

Marc Goldenfein, co-founder of ArtsPay.

The arts ecosystem has suffered immensely over the past two years, with many artists and small arts organisations struggling to make ends meet. But the problems that emerged because of the pandemic are not new. The arts funding landscape has been difficult for artists and arts organisations for a very long time. In our research, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts, we are hearing about challenges that are long-term and systemic. We need new structures and big shifts to take place if we want our arts and cultural sectors to thrive for the long term.

At ArtsPay we are trying to make a change that we hope will have a big impact, well into the future. We are doing this by reorientating a sector that has historically been driven entirely by profit, and giving it a new purpose. Payment processing is a multi-trillion dollar global industry that touches nearly everything. Almost every business uses a payment processor of some sort, and every business pays fees to do so. By using the fees that would normally go solely to the profit of big banks or Silicon Valley to fund the arts, we hope to achieve our mission of a sustainable new source of funding for small arts organisations and independent artists. With ArtsPay, every coffee, ticket, poster, record, bunch of flowers, yoga class and bottle of wine can make a small contribution to the arts, without costing customers a penny.

Consumer brands with purpose built into their DNA and product lines are increasingly capturing market share from traditional brands that don’t stand for much. Ethical super, ethical banking, better toilet paper, toothbrushes and cleaning products are just the beginning, and I hope this trend continues to encroach into all areas, including B2B businesses. Reviewing our suppliers and choosing businesses with purpose not solely profit is just as important as voting with our consumer wallets.

In the past, it seemed that every company's mission was to “make the world a better place”.... but that is simply not going to cut it anymore. Real change comes when businesses identify a problem that needs fixing and work towards ensuring their business model addresses that problem, building a social good into their mission. Then we have better business.

In these times of big change, we have an opportunity to contribute to the next wave of business innovation that builds new systems for the benefit of everyone, not just shareholders. I hope everyone takes this wave of optimism and harnesses it for a better tomorrow, not just business as usual.