Allocation of funds
The Cultural Business Development Foundation has been allocating around NOK 15 million a year to the development of the cultural industry for the public benefit within SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge's market area (Nordland, Troms, Finnmark and Svalbard). Allocation will occur by means of financial support to culture-related businesses and culture-promoting activities, in some cases also by means of investment and loans.
Charitable causes
The Norwegian savings banks give part of their profits to charitable causes, including the establishment and development of the cultural industry. This is intended as a supplement to private capital and public subsidy schemes. When funding is gifted to charitable causes, there is no requirement for direct reciprocity.
The most important criterion for supporting charitable causes is that they can be demonstrated to be of public benefit to many people. Gifting funds to charitable causes creates jobs and generates activity for other businesses in the region. This creates a basis for establishing and developing commercial activity and partnerships that will benefit society. The general concept also includes the promotion of entrepreneurship, technological development or network and structure building that benefit many in the cultural industry. Support can also be given to projects that are essentially a matter of public responsibility, if such support can help to accelerate the implementation of the project. Purely private or commercial purposes are outside the scope, however. There is a restrictive attitude to covering ongoing operations.
Applications
From 2019, applications within cultural business should be directed to Samfunnsløftet, SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge.