The phrase "act as patron" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to someone who supports or sponsors an individual, organization, or cause, often in a cultural or artistic context.
Example: "The wealthy businessman decided to act as patron for the local art gallery, providing funding for new exhibitions."
Alternatives: "serve as a sponsor" or "function as a benefactor."
This initiative from the Prince of Wales, to act as patron to a coalition of British industry groups, is not such woolly thinking.
A Congress spokesman said three days ago that Rahul would lead the general election campaign and that his mother, Sonia, currently Congress president and leader of the governing UPA coalition, would act as "patron" and "supreme leader".
Soon after this the Shāh turned away from painting, convinced that it was a frivolous and irreligious diversion, and though some of the Shāh's relatives continued to act as patrons, Sulṭān Muḥammad seems to have painted no more.
Now a layer of net wizards (high-net wizards?) with a tonne of money has slipped in over the top, but it doesn't seem to have changed much, except to act as patrons to the techies and push the rest of the middle further towards the bottom.
Piero himself acted as patron of the Platonic Academy and provided work for such great artists as Donatello, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Sandro Botticelli.
He has regularly picked up awards at the Cannes film festival, and last year he acted as patron of the 40th Cannes "Critics' Week", succeeding Bernardo Bertolucci.
Painting lived alone in a converted Warwickshire barn full of music and books and acted as patron of many local charities.
He sang in, and acted as patron of, the Montegiorgio community choir in the Marche region of Italy, where he had a holiday home, and the Holme Valley Singers, based near his home in Yorkshire, and organised exchanges between the two choirs from 2010 onwards.
When the show returned for its fourth season, he acted as patron (parrain) during the first week, and could save and work with eliminated candidates.
For years, China has acted as patron to the smaller communist state, providing billions annually in much-needed aid — almost $7 billion in 2014 — and doubling trade, despite UN sanctions imposed to deter North Korean nuclear weapons testing and other acts of military aggression.
His 10 years in Paris were invaluable to him, and his three bronzes in the show have the dandified elegance that persuaded Helena Rubinstein to act as his patron and sponsor when he returned to the United States.
