Katie,
 
We've had similar discussions in our office as well.  Here is what we currently do:
 
The History Center offers individual and corporate memberships that range from $49 to $10,000, and is a pretty steady funding stream.  In addition to the benefits that your institution offers, we also offer a quarterly magazine and, since the History Center is an affiliate of the Smithsonian, our members also receive the Smithsonian's monthly magazine.  We have approximately 5,000 members.
 
To answer your question of combining donors and members, we often are engaged in some Campaign or another (Capital, Endowment, etc.) in which we solicit many of our individual (especially our highest-level members) and corporate members for gifts.  In that case, we often wrap membership into those asks as a "benefit" of their donation to the Campaign.  It doesn't really cost us anything, but it saves us from hitting up the same people for a big gift and then for a smaller membership gift when it comes time for them to renew.
 
For accounting purposes, we enter the gifts into Raiser's Edge as two gifts, one for membership and one for the campaign, so our membership budget still receives its due funding.  Oftentimes, if an individual or corporation makes a multi-year pledge to the Campaign, the membership deal is good for as many years as they have agreed to pay out their pledge.  It's convenient for them, they just have to cut us one check a year.
 
The membership cost is usually much lower than their Campaign pledges, so when they're all paid up and we finally ask them to simply renew their membership, it's a deal to them.  By that time, they're used to receiving the benefits, and we hope that they've used them enough to recognize their value and that they will then turn around and renew as a member.
 
Hope this doesn't confuse you - it makes perfect sense to us around here!  :-)
 

**************************************************************************

Niccole Cook

Development Associate

Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center

1212 Smallman Street

Pittsburgh, PA  15222

Phone:  412-454-6405     Fax:  412-454-6031

www.pghhistory.org

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katie Anderson
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 5:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: membership vs. donations

Our museum is an 8 year old, small local history museum with less than 10k visitors each year.  We have 228 active members. 

 

Recently we have had some problems with how revenue is counted.  Our membership levels are:

 

$10 student

$25 Senior

$30 single

$35 family

$100 patron

$500 Bronze

$1,000 Silver

$2,500 Gold

$5,000 Platinum

$10,000 Corporate

$25,000 Sustaining

 

These membership levels have been in place for many years.  We just had our first membership drive spearheaded by a board member.  The board member thought we would get more money if we raised our membership rate so she sent out a membership application with a $50 membership (which did not exist before) as the minimum.  But we were still using the old form at the museum.  Needless to say, these caused some confusion among our members and staff.

 

Benefits of membership are: free admission, invitation to members-only events, 10% at shop, and our newsletter (which goes out to just about everyone anyway).  These benefits pertain to every level.  We’re a small museum and there is not much more we can offer in the form of benefits to cover so many different levels.

 

Now some board members want to give automatic memberships to donors.  I’m not completely comfortable with this idea.  Not everyone wants to be a member.  They know the same level of support will be asked of them again the next year.  Just seems like we should not assume.  Also, it seems like we are missing an opportunity to have them legitimately in both categories as a member and as a donor.

 

Here’s my question:  Isn’t it important to keep these categories distinct? 

 

Thanks,

Katie

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katie Anderson

Museum Director

Rome Area History Museum

305 Broad Street

Rome, GA 30161

706-235-8051

cell 678-908-7751

fax 706-235-6631

[log in to unmask]

www.RomeHistoryMuseum.com

 

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A new exhibit highlighting the efforts on the home front during WWII is now open at the Rome Area History Museum.  "World War II: The Home Front" contains photos and artifacts from the 1940s that tell the story of this transformational time.  A video containing clips of oral history interviews with local WWII veterans and civilians is on view in the exhibit.     

As a partner of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, we are coordinating an oral history project with World War II veterans and civilians in northwest Georgia.  It is vital that we preserve these stories.  Please contact the Museum to schedule interviews. 

 

The oral history project and exhibit are supported in part by a grant from the Georgia Humanities Council. 

 

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