Good Morning Museum-List people,

1.)     Recently, I was asked by a museum colleague, “Is it customary for members of a museum’s Board of Trustees to be required – as a requirement of being a member of the Board of Trustees – to make an annual minimum monetary donation to the museum?”

I am aware of one art museum in another state (back in the early 1980s), which required its Board members to annually:  a.) be a “personal” member of the museum’s membership program at a $2,000+ level; b.) have her/his business at a “corporate” membership level of $1,000+; and c.) use her/his influence to secure an annually prescribed amount of funds for Board of Trustees’ identified projects/activities in the form of various gifts, sponsorships, etc….  It was my understanding that each Board member knew this before becoming a member of that museum’s Board of Trustees, and each Board member knew that if she/he did not annually respond to this financial requirement of serving on the Board, the President of the Board would “ask” that person to resign from the Board.

2.)     It is my intent to respond to my museum colleague’s question. But before I do, I thought it would be prudent, on my part, to give my museum colleague a more “up-to-date” response.

3.)     So, I am asking my Museum-List-Serve colleagues the same question…..“Is it customary for members of a museum’s Board of Trustees to be required – as a requirement of being a member of the Board of Trustees – to make an annual minimum donation to the museum?”  Please note, that for confidentiality reasons, you do not need to name the museum.  However, if you know of such a museum, I would like a sense of a monetary commitment the Board member would have to make.  I will use your response to this question to answer the question posed by my museum colleague.

By the way, I will post my response on this List-Serve.

Thank you,

Wesley

Wesley S. Creel

Administrator of Programs

Pink Palace Family of Museums

Memphis, TN

Office 901.320.6370

www.memphismuseums.org