Dear friends in Arkansas:

Why doesn't your museum work on a campaign to build an endowment for your
historic structure?     The interest from the endowment could be used to
supplement your state budget for salaries and operating support for a stable
and happy future.

The first step is to check with the Arkansas State Accounting Office and
check out the legal parameters for setting up an endowment.    You may need
to establish a private non-profit "friends" group to handle this activity.
You can ask your state accounting people if any other state unit (e.g., a
State Arts Council or Humanities Council) has an endowment and then, study
its structure as well as ask staff in those divisions about the pros and cons
of utilizing that structure.   You just want to make sure that you comply
with state law.

The second step is to set-up a committee of well connected, powerful people
who can open doors and can give you lots of names of probable donors for
making the campaign a reality. This group will become your Steering
Committee.  It has a definite task, and is ad hoc, just formed for this
purpose with a deadline for completing its work.

The third step is to find the right volunteer chairperson for the campaign
who will be dynamic and committed as well as very wealthy and generous to
provide leadership.

The four step is to develop your PR materials, including a case statement in
the rough and later refine them, once you have done a feasibility study.

The feasibilty study  is basically a marketing tool.   You want teams of
staff and volunteers.  The volunteers or board of your friends group open the
doors to potential donors.   Staff usually make the ask --  a lot of
volunteers don't feel comfortable asking for the money, but they go along for
the ride, since you are asking your board and volunteers' friends!   You want
to ask at least 100 rich people for their ideas and interest about the
endowment and what it would fund (new programs, capital improvements --
whatever the  museum's long term  needs are).  You need to make your ptich
and your case statement compelling and give your potential donors some
emotional reason to become involved.  But during the feasibility study,  you
are just asking potential donors how much they might consider giving and for
their ideas about the expansion.

Once you complete the feasibility study,  you systematically analyze your
results
(of course, you were recording the information from the interviews with
donors as you were doing the study in a professional way --  as field notes
and with questionnaires).    Then you revise your case statement and PR
materials to reflect concerns of the donors.

You next want to determine from your research a realistic goal of how much
money you want to raise and make a strict timeline.   You don't want to drag
out a campaign.  You must check with other organizations, too, to be sure
that you time the campaign properly -- otherwise your donors may have other
financial commitments to other campaigns.

Then you find a few major donors who will give you at least half of your goal
upfront before your officially launch your campaign.    You want to structure
for success.
You promote the museum during the campaign but you don't officially talk about
the money raised in the press until you hit something like 75 or 80 percent
of the goal.

You may want to use a professional fund-raising firm to assist your
organization with this task.   But be warned, they are very expensive.   You
want to send out a proper RFP and get the best possible firm, e.g., one that
has experience with your type of organization and donors.  The firm is not
going to raise the money for you;  they just provide strategy,structure (
e.g.,  who will be on the teams and how to proceed for board solicitation,
lead gifts, major gifts, public appeals)  and probably training for your
volunteers and staff.  Also, they make sure you hold regular meetings -- it's
sort of like Weight Watchers or AMWAY with testimonials, pep talks, and a
legal pyramid scheme -- you ask Mr. Smith and he gives $50,000, then you get
Mr. Smith to ask Mr. Jones who gives $35,000 or whatever is appropriate based
on your research and how much you can capture his interest in the museum.

Well, there's so much more information, but that should get you started.
Happy fund-raising $$$$$$$

Pamela Sezgin, Ph.D.
Marietta, Georgia
Advancement Specialist

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