Illuminate FAQs

Does every funded organisation have to use Illuminate? 

Yes. Every funded organisation (NPO, IPSO and CPP) must use Illuminate to report on funded activity and audience / participant numbers on a quarterly basis.   

This information was previously collected through the annual NPO Annual Survey and forms part of the data required to create our official statistics. Organisations will also be required to confirm that the data they have input is accurate and up to date. Guidance on adding and confirming data is available in the Training section of Illuminate.  

It is vital that the Arts Council obtains robust data about the audiences of organisations in receipt of regular public funding. Illuminate has been designed to enable organisations to collect and analyse data, meet reporting requirements and provide the Arts Council with data about their activity and audiences.  

How should Creative People and Places (CPP) projects use Illuminate?  

The Illuminate platform replaces the previous CPP quarterly data link submission. CPPs must add all their activity / event and audience / participant numbers onto the Illuminate platform. Please visit the Activity / Event Log section of these FAQs for more information.  

CPPs should also continue to collect audience data via surveys including these mandatory audience survey questions. We advise using the surveying functionality within the platform to do this. If you choose to collect surveys from outside the platform e.g. using paper surveys, you should ensure that your survey responses can be uploaded into the Illuminate platform. Please visit the Audience Surveys section of these FAQs for more information.  

Further information on monitoring and reporting requirements for Creative People and Places programmes is available here. 

How should NPOs and IPSOs use Illuminate? 

The Illuminate platform replaces the Activity and Audience sections in the Annual Survey from previous investment period reporting. NPOs and IPSOs must add all their funded activity / event details and audience / participant numbers onto the Illuminate platform. Please visit the Activity / Event Log section of these FAQs for more information. 

We encourage use of the Audience Surveys in Illuminate, but it is not mandated for NPOs and IPSOs in 2024/25. If your organisation chooses not to collect or report Audience Survey data through Illuminate this year you will still be expected to tell the Arts Council what you have done to understand who your audience is during your annual review at the end of the financial year. Please visit the Audience Surveys section of these FAQs for more information. 

You can also integrate your ticketing/box office data with Illuminate. Please visit the Box Office/Ticketing section of these FAQs for more information.  

Further information on monitoring and reporting requirements for NPOs and IPSOs is available here. 

How often do I need to submit data?  

Unless stated otherwise, data is to be submitted to the Arts Council through Illuminate on a quarterly basis. All organisations must report on their activity and audience figures in Illuminate, ensuring this is kept up to date and accurate by completing the Quarterly Confirmation step.  

Please refer to your specific funding agreement for details and deadlines to submit and confirm data. You are welcome to add data to the platform more regularly if you want.  

Read the NPO and IPSO payment calendar. 

Read more information on CPP monitoring and reporting.  

Is all of the Annual Survey now conducted within the Illuminate platform? 

Illuminate reporting replaces the previous Activity and Audience sections only. The Annual Survey will still take place on an annual basis through a system called Qualtrics; this is separate to Illuminate. Where applicable, Annual Survey data collection will include workforce statistics (including leadership); training and accessibility; income and expenditure; digital content; accessibility of work/venues; international reach; and learning and participation. IPSOs and CPPs may also be asked additional/alternative questions.  

The change is that funded activity and audience numbers, which were previously collected through the Annual Survey, are now collected through Illuminate on a quarterly basis for the 2023-2026 Investment period. 

Please ensure you understand your reporting requirements at the end of the financial year. You can download the relevant guidance for NPOs/IPSOs or CPPs here.  

What is the difference between Illuminate and the Impact & Insight Toolkit?  

Both platforms use similar data collection methods (for example, surveys distributed to people who attended an event). However, the data is collected for different purposes. Following analysis, the insights you uncover help you to answer different questions.  

Illuminate will help you to understand which audiences you are reaching, and who you are not.  

The Impact & Insight Toolkit helps you to evaluate specific pieces of work and measure progress against your ambitions. Find out more about the Toolkit here.  

The two systems are managed separately and will not integrate with each other. However, they will both host the same core demographic questions, making data collection and comparison easier across the two.  

Illuminate is mandatory for all funded organisations to use. The Impact and Insight Toolkit is mandatory for CPPs, optional for NPO and IPSOs.  

If you choose to collect demographic audience data outside the Illuminate platform, e.g through Impact and Insight toolkit surveys, you can upload the responses using the How to upload Offline responses guidance in the Training Hub.  

What is an ‘Event’ or ‘Activity’ in Illuminate? 

Within Illuminate, we use the word ‘event’ to describe any activity which is funded by the Arts Council and has an audience or participants. This could be general admission to a venue, a specific show or exhibition, workshops or any other activity organised by your organisation for an audience or participants to experience. There are no minimum restrictions for the size of an event, although Illuminate events should have some attendees such as audience members, participants, or other groups.  

What details do we need to report on our Event/Activity? 

Each activity needs to include the following details; 

Name of Activity/Tour - free text 

Location – choose one – your organisations need to first create Locations in Illuminate 

Ticketed – select Yes or No 

Event Type – choose one 

Distribution Type – choose one 

Discipline/Sub-discipline – choose one 

Start Date – choose date 

End Date – choose date 

Event funded by your Arts Council Funded grant? - Select Yes or No 

Depending on your activity there may be additional information required, please refer to the guidance in the Training hub, How to Create Locations and Activities / Events and How to Bulk Upload Locations and Events. 

Where do I add my Activity/Event details? 

You add this information to the Event Management screen, which you will find by following the Events & Surveys

Or by selecting the Manage Event Schedule box on the homepage: 

Much of my funded activity shares event details, e.g. same location, same type of activity or same distribution type, can I duplicate an event I have already saved to speed up data input? 

Yes, in April 2024 we introduced the ability to duplicate your events. 

The How to Create Locations and Activities / Events guidance in the Training section within Illuminate includes information on how to duplicate events you have already saved. 

Are we required to upload data for each programmed event / activity?  

Organisations are required to input data to Illuminate for all funded event/activity with an audience or participants. This includes information on where activity is taking place, when it is happening, the type of event, how it is distributed/engaged with and total audience/participant volumes. This data is part of your reporting requirements and means you can link audience surveys and ticketing data to specific events, providing much richer insights on who is interacting with different areas of your activity.  

Organisations can choose to group activity/events together where the details match if they would like. You can also use your Activity Plan as a guide. 

The How to Create Locations and Activities / Events guidance in the Training Hub within Illuminate provides information on how to add your events to the platform. 

Alternatively, you can use the bulk upload option which allows organisations to upload multiple events and location data at the same time. The How to Bulk Upload Locations and Events guidance in the Training Hub within Illuminate provides information on this alternative. 

I’m working in collaboration with other organisations on funded activity, can I tag them as a partner when creating my event/activity? 

In April 2024 we launched a new Event Collaboration feature which allows organisations to tag / assign their collaborators/partners in Illuminate. As long as the other organisation(s) are registered with Illuminate (i.e. all funded organisations) you can assign/tag them as collaborators on your activity/event.  

There are two roles you can choose from: 

Partners are able to see the activity/event in their organisation’s Activity Log and will also be able to view any data submitted for that event, e.g. Audience Surveys and/or Box Office data. They can also share survey links, however they cannot create or edit surveys themselves and they cannot edit event details.  

Event Owners can do everything a Partner can but they can also edit event details. This role will also enable them to design and share their own survey (e.g. if they have specific optional questions they need to ask a subset of the audience), add further partners to the event and edit the event details too.  

For most collaborations assigning as a Partner will be sufficient. The How to Create Locations and Activities / Events guidance in the Training Hub within Illuminate provides information on this Event Collaboration feature.  

Can I assign / tag more than one partner to my activity/event? 

Yes, you can add as many organisations registered in Illuminate as you need to.  

You can also choose to add a mixture of Partners and Event Owners if relevant. 

Can I assign / tag a partner who is not a registered user of Illuminate? 

No, you can only assign / tag partners who are registered users of Illuminate. This feature is designed to enable shared reporting among funded organisations. You must report on all funded activity using Illuminate, but we do not require you to list other non funded organisation partners here.  

If you would like to record other non registered partners in your activity / event or Audience Surveys, for your own reference, you could choose to add them to the title of the event. 

Can my venue capture general visitor data too?  

Yes, but you only have to do so if this forms part of your funding agreement with the Arts Council.  

You can do this by creating a ‘general admission’ activity on Illuminate (for example General Admission 24/25 or General Admission Q1). This allows you to report on the numbers of general visitors to your venue, you can also then survey that activity separately to gain insights and comparison e.g. general admission visitors vs audience for specific booked events.  

Please do not duplicate audience numbers from your specific events within your general visitor numbers if you are reporting on both elements of your programme. 

Should I add my international activity to Illuminate? 

Yes, if your international activity is funded through your NPO grant, this should be included in your activity/events log. All activity must include location information so you would simply add this information to the Locations section and assign the relevant international location to the activity you report. 

In April 2024 we added non-UK countries to the list, allowing more accurate reporting on locations.  

The Annual Survey will ask you to report some information on International funded activity, but the detail of the type of activity and the audience/participant numbers must be reported in Illuminate.  

Download the full list of non-UK countries here.  

Should I add my online activity to Illuminate?  

Yes. Illuminate caters for different types of distribution/interaction, including digital activity where the event is ticketed or scheduled. You can choose ‘online only’ for the location and you can also choose from a list of digital distribution types. 

However, Illuminate is not intended to capture general online interactions (for example, website visits, content download).  

Some digital engagements might be better reported in the Web Based Activity section of the Annual Survey. You can download the relevant guidance for NPOs, IPSOs or CPPs here.  

My public facing activity is with participants rather than traditional ‘audiences’ – can I still use Illuminate to report on this activity?  

Yes. Illuminate caters for different types of activity including participatory activity.  

When creating your activity/event you would select one of the Participatory event types, and add your total attendee numbers so that it is recorded against this activity type. 

You will be asked to provide further breakdown on Participatory/Learning activity in the Annual Survey, if this is part of your funded activity. You can download the relevant guidance for NPOs, IPSOs or CPPs here. 

If my activity is with under 16s or vulnerable adults only do I report this in Illuminate? 

Yes, you should report all activities/events funded by the Arts Council with audience or participants including those for under 16s or vulnerable adults. It is just the Audience Surveys which would not be appropriate for these groups. 

I have seen that I need to confirm my Activity / Event data. What does this mean? 

We require organisations to ‘confirm’ that data they input each quarter is accurate and up to date. This is a validation step which should be completed by the end of the following quarter. Instructions for completing this are included in the How to Complete Quarterly Activity Confirmations found in the Training hub within Illuminate. 

Confirmation does not prevent edits or adding events to a quarter in Illuminate. Please be aware that reconfirmation would be needed if any changes are made to your data after the first confirmation. At the end of the financial year, confirmation for the year will be required. 

Please refer to your funding agreement, relevant frameworks and/or guidance documents for specific dates and deadlines for your organisation’s reporting requirements.  

Instructions for completing this are included in the How to Complete Quarterly Activity Confirmations found in the Training hub within Illuminate. 

What should I do if I don’t deliver any activity with an audience or participants in a quarter / year? 

You will still need to complete the confirmation step. This ensures we know that the lack of data in Illuminate is accurate and not a mistake or reporting issue.  

Instructions for completing this are included in the How to Complete Quarterly Activity Confirmations found in the Training hub within Illuminate. 

If events will be taking place throughout multiple quarters, how should we record this? 

We suggest inputting activity / event data and audience numbers quarterly but appreciate this is not always practical. 

You can record the last date of your activity as you create the event or leave it to the end of the activity. It is up to you. You will be able to re-visit previous quarters of the current year if you have updates to make, so really it is up to you how you record events taking place through multiple quarters. 

All activity for the first year (2023/2024) needs to be entered and confirmed in Illuminate by the end of June 2024.  

Please note that during the year if any changes are made to your data after confirmation, including activity/event details, new survey data or box office/ticketing data, this will reopen the quarter and reconfirmation will be needed.  

At the end of each financial year, confirmation for the year’s data will be required. We will use this confirmed data to compile our official statistics, alongside the data collected in your annual survey. 

How do we establish total attendance in different situations? 

We are asking you to provide total attendance for the activity / event you are reporting, to the best of your knowledge.  

If you know exact attendance please use the known option. 

If you are estimating attendance please use the estimated option. As long as you have a consistent method to estimate your audiences this will be fine for our purposes. 

Some guidelines for reporting workshop attendance below: 

Where can I see a list of all Activity Types, Distribution Types and Sub-discipline types?  

These are listed in the back of the How to Bulk Upload Locations and Events guidance found in the Training hub within Illuminate. 

You can also download a list here.  

What are the Audience Survey reporting expectations for 2024/25?  

CPPs must continue to undertake audience surveying in Illuminate in 2024/25. CPPs should use the suggested sample sizes here as a guide to sample sizes. 

NPOs and IPSOs will not be required to undertake audience surveying in Illuminate in 2024/25.  

It is important that funded organisations understand who their audiences are and can evidence who they are engaging with their work. Audience Surveys in Illuminate have been designed to help organisations collect, analyse, and share insights on their audience. We therefore encourage you to undertake audience surveying where appropriate.  

As part of the end of year review, NPOs or IPSOs (Investment Principles Support Organisations) who do not undertake Audience Surveys via Illuminate will be asked to tell us what else they did to collect data and build an understanding of who they engage with via their work.  

When is it not appropriate to undertake Audience Surveys?  

Audience Surveys are designed to be used with General Public Audience / Participant groups in Illuminate. If an organisation or activity fits into one of the following criteria, Audience Surveys would not be appropriate:  

If an organisation is solely:   

• touring   
• business to business (providing a service, rather than engaging directly with audiences and/or participants)   
• focused on artist/talent development   
• a publisher   

If audiences / participants for an organisation are solely:  

• under 16   
• vulnerable adults  

We are still interested in how you build an understanding of audience / participants, and we would encourage you to discuss it as part of the end of year review.   

Please note that Audience Surveys within Illuminate can be used to ask optional questions for under 16s if that is something your organisation want to do.  

Can under 16s complete audience surveys?  

Yes, they can. We understand that for some organisation this is a key demographic of their audience/participants, and there will be valuable audience data you want to collect. 

The audience surveys in Illuminate are designed to ask the respondent’s age before any other demographic questions. If the respondent is under the age of 16, the audience survey would then skip all demographic questions. 

Under 16s will be able to answer other questions about the event, as well as any additional questions you choose to add into your survey from the optional question bank.  

What happens if visitors do not want to complete the mandatory questions, can they be skipped?  

A respondent can select the ‘prefer not to say’ response or they can skip through many of the questions when completing a survey in Illuminate.  

It is important that at the start of a survey, organisations explain why questions are asked and make clear to audience members that they can choose not to answer any of the questions they do not want to.  

If collecting responses outside Illuminate and someone does not answer a question, you simply need to select ‘Prefer not to say’ in the template when uploading your responses.  

Can the same audience for co-produced/partnership events be surveyed for multiple organisations?  

Yes, the same audience can be surveyed – this can help all partners involved to gain insight on their audiences. We would advise organisations to discuss data collection and sharing in the early stages of partnership or programming conversations. While data collected via Illuminate Audience Surveys is non-identifiable, NPO funding agreements do require you to enter into mutually agreed data-sharing agreements with any Arts Council funded organisations that you have partnered with during the term of your funding agreement. For more information on NPO Data sharing visit . 

The new Event Collaboration feature which launched in April 2024 allows funded organisations to assign / tag their partners (other Illuminate registered organisations) in shared activity, which then creates one record for that activity/event visible to all assigned partners. 

My public facing activity is with participants rather than traditional ‘audiences’ – can I still use Illuminate to survey this group?  

Yes, Illuminate caters for different types of interaction including participatory activity. When creating your activity/event you would select one of the Participatory event types, and then any Audience Survey responses collected for that activity/event would be recorded against a Participatory activity type. 

You will be asked to provide further information on Participatory/Learning activity in the Annual Survey, if this is part of your funded activity, however the detail of the Activity type and the total participant number should be reported in Illuminate.   

Please refer to the https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/our-data/our-npos-and-annual-data-survey to understand your reporting requirements at the end of the financial year. You can download the relevant guidance for NPOs/IPSOs or CPPs here. 

Can I capture information on my online audience members?  

Yes. Illuminate caters for different types of interaction, including digital activity where the event is ticketed or scheduled.  

However, Illuminate is not intended to capture general online interaction (for example, website visits, content download etc).  

Can I collect my audience survey data using another method / outside the platform?  

Illuminate has built-in functionality to collect data directly through audience surveys and we encourage all users to collect their audience survey responses through Illuminate. However, you may choose to use another method or platform to collect the data, and then submit the responses to Illuminate. Please ensure that your questions and responses are identical to the mandatory questions and follow the How to Upload Offline Survey Responses guidance within the Training Hub in Illuminate. You must first design your survey, download the relevant template, and ensure data is compatible to ensure it can be uploaded into the platform once collected.  

Depending on how you structure your questions and responses and/or how you export the responses, you may need to complete a level of manual data cleaning in advance of submission. If a survey respondent does not answer one of the mandatory questions you would use ‘Prefer not to say’ when uploading.  

We encourage users follow the How to Create and Issue Surveys guidance in the Training Hub to build and collect surveys within Illuminate. 

Are survey templates available?  

Yes, a pre-built template populated with all mandatory questions is available within Illuminate. 

Organisations are also welcome to save their own templates with the additional optional questions they want to include regularly.  

Can you tell me more about the mandatory questions in audience surveys? 

The mandatory / core questions are designed to capture data which will help build a picture of your audiences across a broad range of factors including questions on: 

Event information - Date + Time of visit/attendance 

Type of Audience – Group relationship, Group Size + Age 

Demographic information – Age, Ethnicity, Disability, Socio-economic status, Location/Country of residence, Sex + Gender, Sexual Orientation. 

Audience Surveys within Illuminate include the mandatory questions as standard. A list of 2024 / 2025 mandatory questions and response options is available here. There are Prefer not to say options available for respondents, or they can choose to skip or not to answer a question at all, if completing the survey in Illuminate. 

These questions align with the Arts Council’s demographic monitoring and have been designed based on ONS (Office for National Statistics) recommendations wherever possible. We will keep these questions under review, as we do across all our monitoring strands.  

Can you tell me more about the optional questions I can add to audience surveys? 

When creating an Audience Survey organisations can select extra questions from the library of optional questions for Illuminate.  

You can put forward suggestions to be added to the optional question and response list. Please submit these suggestions to the Arts Council’s customer service team. Your question and response will be considered with suggestions from other users and following review we will introduce new optional questions. If a suggested question and/or response is added to the platform, this would be available to all users free of charge.  

In April 2024 we made updates to the Audience Surveys including reordering the sections so that the Optional Questions you select will now be asked before the mandatory demographic questions in your survey.  

There is currently no functionality for users to further reorder the questions within Audience Surveys in Illuminate.  

Can I use survey incentives? 

Your organisation is free to use whatever methodology works best to assist with data collection, including survey completion incentives. However, any incentive measures would need to be managed separately from Illuminate.  

Illuminate is not designed to collect identifiable data so there is no functionality to manage incentives directly from within the Illuminate platform.  

How would I survey people attending as part of general admission, rather than a specific exhibition or event? 

If your organisation wants to survey general admission attendees, you can create a ‘general admission’ event / activity and specify a date range.  

You can then create a survey relating to this general admission audience, and distribute this survey via different methods, e.g QR codes printed in the venue or on programmes, or via email / social media.  

Please refer to How to Create and Issue Surveys guidance in the Training Hub in Illuminate for more information. 

Illuminate has been designed so that the details of the activity / event must be added first, and then an Audience Survey is created for that specific activity. This allows your surveys and insights to be specific.   

Will the survey jump back to the beginning for fieldwork assistants?  

When using Illuminate to survey in person, once a survey is completed you can click a button to automatically submit that survey and loop back to the beginning of a new survey. The fieldwork assistant can then interview the next audience member.  

We introduced a new Unattended mode in April 2024 which allows Illuminate surveys to be collected on a device without the need to remain logged in. This will also allow multiple survey submissions to be made from the same IP. We suggest making use of this new mode for face to face collection. 

Please refer to How to Create and Issue Surveys guidance in the Training Hub in Illuminate for more information. 

Can I survey the same people if they come to multiple events? 

Yes, you can. It is recommended that organisations survey audience members randomly at each event. As Audience Surveys are linked to event / activity, even if an audience member has been surveyed at a prior event, they could be surveyed again, as they are part of the audience for subsequent events and so can be represented in the data.  

Please refer to the Survey Best Practice and Survey Collection Fieldwork guidance in the Training Hub in Illuminate for more information. 

Can surveys be edited after being published? 

Surveys can be edited after they have been published if they have not yet received any responses.  

If you have already collected responses but need to make a change, we suggest you close that survey and create a new one with whatever change you need to make.  

Do we need to set up a data sharing agreement with PwC or Arts Council to collect data through Illuminate? 

No, Illuminate is designed to collect non identifiable audience data, therefore a data sharing agreement with PwC or the Arts Council is not required.  

If you are collecting or processing any additional identifiable data outside the platform, e.g. full names or emails, as part of your Audience Surveying using a method other than Illuminate, you should follow the latest guidance on Data collection. For more information visit the ICO website.  

Do I have to submit Box Office data? 

Organisations need to submit box office data where their box office/ticketing system integrates with Illuminate.  

In April 2024, we released a general API to enable more box office providers to connect and send ticketing data on your behalf. If your box office provider cannot connect but they can provide you with an export of compatible data, you can use the manual upload option.  

If Organisations do not have access to this, or do not in fact use a box office or have ticketed events, they do not need to provide box office data to Illuminate. 

What are the requirements for box office data if I do not sell tickets? 

If you do not sell or distribute tickets, or if you are unable to access the ticketing/box office data for an event, then you are not expected to upload box office/ticketing data in to Illuminate.  

Which Box Office/Ticketing Providers are already integrated with Illuminate? 

Integration is already confirmed with the following ticketing/box office providers: 

• Spektrix 
• Ticketsolve 

We are also finalising testing with the following providers, users will be made aware when this is completed: 

• TicketSource 

Organisations using these systems simply need to give their consent for those providers to share their ticketing data with Illuminate. Once consent has been provided, transferring ticketing data to Illuminate can be automated, allowing users to see their box office/Ticketing data within the Box Office Data section of the platform.  

Further guidance can also be found in the training module for Spektrix and Ticketsolve integrations.  

Do you have plans to connect more Box Office/Ticketing providers with Illuminate? 

In April 2024 we launched a General API connection which will allow more ticketing providers to connect with Illuminate and share ticketing data on your behalf.  

We are working with PwC to onboard more of the ticketing providers our portfolio work with. Please first contact Arts Council customer service team if you would like your box office/ticketing provider to connect to Illuminate, provide a named contact so we can reach out to the ticketing provider. To integrate with Illuminate, a box office provider must have the technical capabilities in place that allows data to be extracted safely and securely by a third party. 

Guidance can be found in the API Connection for Box Office Integration - General guide in the Training Hub in Illuminate if you would like to share this with your provider directly.  

Further guidance can also be found in the training module for Spektrix and Ticketsolve integrations. 

Can I still manually add Box Office / Ticketing data, if my provider cannot connect to the general API? 

Some Ticketing providers may not have the capability to connect automatically to Illuminate, but most box office providers have the functionality to download data directly from their platform. A manual upload option remains available to users if they would like to upload box office data in to Illuminate but are not using one of the integrated systems.  

The Box Office Data Upload guide available in the Training Hub in Illuminate explains how to do this.  

How do I upload the data if a different organisation runs the box office or sells tickets for my event? 

You could request ticketing data from your partner venue in order to upload into Illuminate manually. If you are unable to get this data from the venue, you will not be expected to upload the information into Illuminate. 

If you are partnering with another NPO they can now tag / assign you as a Partner on the Activity / Event within Illuminate and that will create one record visible to all partners.  

Data collection and data sharing should be part of conversations between partners/collaborators on events/activity. NPO funding agreements require you to enter into mutually agreed data-sharing agreements with any Arts Council funded organisations that you have partnered with during the term of your funding agreement. For more information on NPO Data sharing visit here. 

Can events / activity be created using the box office data? 

No. There is no automated functionality to create events from Box Office data. This is so that event / activity reporting, and surveying, can be completed without the need for box office / ticketing data to be received, and to allow accurate reporting to the Arts Council on funded activity and actual audience attendance (known and/or estimated). 

All funded organisations have to report to the Arts Council on their funded activities / events and audiences via Illuminate, following the guidance in the Training Hub. 

What can the Insights section in Illuminate show me? 

Illuminate Insights provides a detailed look at your audience’s behaviour and preferences presented across 6 different dashboards, based on the data you collect and submit to the platform. It can support you in making data driven decisions and engaging with your audience. This information is driven by four key data points: 

● Survey data from your audience 

● Box office data 

● UK census data (2021) 

● Illuminate system data – data from other funded organisations 

The more data you input, the richer the insights you will gain. Please refer to the Insights Overview Reference Guide and the Insights videos in the Training hub in Illuminate for more information.  

Can I download data from the Insights section? 

The insights section is a visual representation of your data. Although you cannot download direct from the Insights section, you can download all your survey responses from the Event + Survey section. You can also open the graphs and visuals, so they appear larger and take screenshots of these to include in reports or emails to stakeholders.  

What filters are available within the Insights? 

Illuminate allows organisations to filter Insights using the data fields being collected, including event date, event discipline, and audience demographics. You can also compare data against regional and sector averages, where enough data is available. This is to help you understand how your insights compare to your local or similar peers. 

For more information on Insights, you can watch the videos in the Training Hub. 

Will there be audience segmentation/classification within Illuminate?  

An audience classification system to support audience analysis will be developed by PwC and built using the data in Illuminate. We will provide more information when a timeline for this work is established.  

Classifications will be created according to behaviours and the box office Insights will be filterable by these classifications. This system will be built to allow organisations to use their data to assist planning, marketing, and other operations. 

Classifications are being built to benefit organisations; no additional reporting related to these classifications will be required within Illuminate. 

Do I need to tag my activities with discipline classifiers? What are they? 

Yes, you need to classify the activities you enter in to Illuminate and those that are ingested via ticketing integrations. This is to provide more meaningful analysis and allow benchmarking. Please refer to the How to Create Locations and Activities / Events, How to Bulk Upload Locations and Events, Box Office Data Upload and / or API Connection for Box Office Integration guides within illuminate Training Hub for guidance on this. 

Classifiers are listed in the back of the How to Bulk Upload Locations and Events guidance found in the Training hub within Illuminate. 

Is Illuminate accessible?   

Illuminate offers a range of accessibility accommodations, including the ability to listen to the platform text using a screen reader, zooming in up to 300% without the text spilling off the screen, navigating most of the platform using just a keyboard, and navigating most of the platform using external speech recognition software. This includes the surveys built within Illuminate. 

Organisations are free to collect audience survey data outside the platform, using their own methods if these are deemed more accessible, as long as the data is compatible upon upload to Illuminate. We advise anyone thinking of collecting data from outside the platform for upload to refer to the How to Upload Offline Survey Responses within the Training Module in Illuminate. 

Was Illuminate built to any Accessibility Guidelines? 

Illuminate was built to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA conformance level. WCAG covers websites, applications, and other digital content. It is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). WCAG is an international standard. 

The platform underwent accessibility testing before launch, including the use of screen readers, and we expect Illuminate to be readable by most screen readers. If a user finds that this is not the case, we encourage them to contact the Illuminate help desk so that the issue can be explored. 

We are keen to understand issues faced by organisation or audiences as they use the platform, especially in relation to accessibility. Please contact our Customer Services Team to share feedback so we can review barriers.  

What will PwC be able to do with the data?  

PwC are acting as data processors. They are not able to use the data collected for any purpose other than the requirements stipulated by the Arts Council and are not able to commercially exploit the data at any point during the contract or beyond. The data will not be retained by PwC at the end of the contract period.   

How will the data collected through Illuminate be used by the Arts Council?  

The data primarily drives visuals in the Insights section, supporting your audience analysis and development.  

The data will also help the Arts Council understand the impact funding is having, allow us to track progress of Lets Create and continue to help us advocate to government for investment in the creative and cultural sector.  

Following the first year of data submissions we will also start to publish aggregated data. 

Can I transfer any of my historical audience data to Illuminate?  

No, there is no functionality to add historical data into the Illuminate, for activity that took place before 1 April 2023. This is a new tool for the 2023-26 Investment Programme, and the data fields within the platform have been standardised for aggregation and benchmark reporting purposes. 

Illuminate does have the capability to export data collected by the tool so you can conduct your own analysis alongside other historical data outside of the tool if you wish.  

Who gets an account for Illuminate? 

At launch the Illuminate invite email was sent to the Grantium main contact. These contacts were registered as an Organisation Admin user for your organisation. This means they can create accounts for other users within your organisation. If you need an Illuminate account created and you do not know who your Organisation Admin user is or they are unable to create an account for you, please contact the Arts Council’s Customer Service team. 

Who is in control of the user management for my organisation? 

Organisations are expected to manage user accounts. Organisation Admin users should refer to the New User Account Creation and User Management guidance in the Training Hub for information on how to complete user management tasks such as deletion, deactivation, and creation of users.  

If you require support, you can contact the Arts Council’s Customer Service team who will be happy to assist you. 

How many user accounts can my organisations have? 

Each organisation will be able to have up to 10 users at a time, so it will be important to keep your user information current. You can include freelancers within this 10-user limit.  

Deletion or deactivation of users will not affect the historic data submissions by those users. Your Organisation Admin users should delete/deactivate accounts for users who no longer require access to your Illuminate account as soon as possible. 

For consortium NPOs, do we collect data for only the lead organisation or for both lead and partner organisations? 

In the case of consortium NPOs, each individual organisation should have access to their own account. 

The consortium lead will need to be able to meet the data reporting requirements in their funding agreement and should ensure an approach with partners that enables this.  

Each organisation will have access to all features meaning partners can use Illuminate to build a picture of their audiences across all their work, not just the Arts Council funded/consortium activity. 

In April 2024 we released a new Event Collaboration feature, which enables organisations to assign / tag their partners (other registered users of Illuminate) when they create an activity / event, this will then create one record of the activity shared by all partners / collaborators. We advise consortiums to decide how they want to manage Event / Activity creation and ensure the relevant organisations are assigned so that reporting requirements can be met.  

Guidance on using this new feature is included in the How to Create Locations and Activities / Events guide in the Training Hub.  

Can organisations that are not in the National Portfolio use Illuminate? 

Illuminate launched with access for NPO, IPSO and CPP grant holders. 

Some other organisations have been granted access as this is part of their funding agreement with the Arts Council. We hope to open the platform up to additional organisations in time.  

Following the first year of data submissions we will also start to publish aggregated data, so that more organisations can benefit from the insights on audiences attending funded activity.  

Is it possible for our Organisation name to be changed on Illuminate? 

The organisation account name is set; however, organisations can change their ‘Known as’ name in their organisation profile on Illuminate.  

If someone wants to be linked to an Illuminate account, do they also first have to be linked to the Grantium account for Data Protection purposes? 

No. You do not need to have a Grantium account to have an Illuminate account. Grantium and Illuminate are different systems with different purposes and separate user login information. You control who you want to be linked to the organisation’s Illuminate account, Admin users can change this at any time. 

If you need help removing or changing an Admin user you can contact our Customer Service team. 

Can individual users be linked to more than one organisation on Illuminate? 

Yes they can. This should be requested by the Organisation Admin user via the Arts Council customer service team. 

Does Illuminate link with Grantium? 

No data is shared between Grantium and Illuminate. They are different systems with different purposes and separate user login information. 

Can Illuminate integrate with my CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system? 

No, and there are no plans to integrate Illuminate with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. However, Audience surveys can be shared through your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or by email using the link generated when you create your survey within Illuminate.  

Illuminate is designed to collect non identifiable data.