Great discussion on Small Museums, Folks!
There are several things small museum administrators can do to increase their prospects for success with funders:
1) Each museum must have an annual audit. Funders want to see financial accountability and a proper audit or financial review (if you cannot afford an audit) is a way to demonstrate that the museum administration / board is fiscally sound. This will cost around $2000 per year and must be done by an accounting firm with no ties (e.g., NOT board members) to the museum.
2) Get your board involved. Funders are really impressed when board members accompany the lone, museum administrator to meetings for financial support.
Funders want to see responsible, engaged board members.
3) Flood the local press with the museum's activities and accomplishments. Make friends with the local newspaper editor. Keep the museum's name in front of the public.
4) Stage several events to occur on the same afternoon so that attendance will be up and there is more of a media event. For example, have a teacher and student awards program coincide with an exhibition opening and a book signing. Those three events utilize the same volunteers, refreshment budget, and attract three audiences rather than just one.
5) Collaborate with local clubs like the Rotary, Kwianis, Optimist, Scouts, 4-H,
and Junior League. These clubs often raise money for a charity once a year.
Get on their list. Offer the museum as a space for the awards ceremony. Do special programs for these groups.
6) Try to get your board members to emphasize and understand professionalism in the museum. Too often, small museum boards are private clubs. These good people may be willing to bring in new members, but they still see the museum as their own, little domain. This type of attitude really turns off funders and makes lots of problems, as we all know. The museum leadership should be the people to make the changes, not the administrator. As the administrator, your job can be on the line in these situations.
7) Don't have enough staff to write grants, do programs, change exhibits, and everything else that is expected and needed to be done in running the museum?
Find small amounts of money (from earned income and board member donations) and use contract labor to write grants. There are usually a few, independent museum consultants or university professors lurking about the state museum association who will write grants for a few hundred dollars. Budget $35 to $50 per hour and calculate that it will take at least 10 to 20 hours to produce a decent proposal. Once you have a few proposals, you can update them or change them and submit to different sources as needed.
8) Remember: personal contact with the funders is what sells your project or proposal. You need to make telephone calls and arrange meetings before you submit a written proposal. The funders will tell you at these meetings exactly what they want in the proposal, if they are interested. Start with local foundations, utlitility company foundations, and major corporation and family foundations in your state -- they all have local agendas. Usually, they do not fund out-of-state, or even out-of-county proposals. They only distribute the money locally.
9) Make strong alliances with your local school systems. They are good sources of financial and community support.
Hope this helps. Happy New Year to All!
Cordially,
Pamela Sezgin
Museum Consultant