Sector 3: Solidifying Your Reputation

People will always talk so do what you
can to control the message.

As you consider the relationships you have built or are building, take a moment and consider how people in the community describe your organization.  What kind of reputation does it have?  Is the museum considered quiet and sleepy?  Mysterious?  Stagnant?  Or is it known as innovative and active in the community?  I think all of us prefer the latter description, but not all of us can be assured of it. 

When considering the work before you, knowing your reputation and improving or enhancing it is critical to your success.  There are four strategic ways you can solidify your reputation:

Start taking steps for future fundraising campaigns and annual appeals by establishing or reconnecting with a donor base.  Set up coffee chats, special visits or tours of the museum, attend public events and programs to be seen and meet people, or simply network through friends and family and connect with your base of donors, e.g. members.  Make sure donors know who you are and what the museum’s mission is and be sure to stay in contact.  People give to people and when your donors know who the face of the organization is, their giving comfort improves.

Once you’ve had some “face time” with donors and feel like you understand why people give to the museum, consider a membership drive or a small capital campaign to test the waters.  You, of course, have sizeable funding needs, but instead of tackling them all at once, carve out a smaller campaign that matches your staffing, board, and volunteer capacity.  Establish a goal for members acquired or funds raised and don’t let up until the goal is met.  Then, thank the donors, steward the relationships, and keep them primed and ready for future giving opportunities. 

Separate from the fundraising strategies but critical to your success is your relationship to the local media.  Pay close attention to the messages used to describe the museum and the topics local media focus on when reporting about museums/your museum.  Get in the habit of crafting regular press releases with consistent messaging.  Get to know local journalists and editors – make sure they know they can call you directly when news relates to your organization.  And, never lose sight of how the museum is described in social media circles.  Respond to negative comments with positive language that invites the author to return again.  Develop some kind of regular posting schedule that pushes interesting information about the museum to social media audiences.  A united, consistent messaging process will influence your reputation in lasting ways.

And lastly, and by far the most important way to solidify your reputation is to be kind to everyone.  It sounds ridiculously simple, but one or two bad days and you’ve created a ripple effect among community members who may think you’re inaccessible, disinterested, or worse, rude, and they will make decisions about supporting the museum based on their interactions with you.  If you live in a small town, this extends to the grocery aisle, the day care drop off point, and so much more.  This visibility can be a drag, but it’s also an easy way to draw positive attention to your museum that will ultimately attract support for all of those amazing projects you have lined up.

Next week, you’ll read about the fourth and final sector, assessment and planning, and we’ll see you at the American Alliance of Museums annual meeting in Baltimore!

Working in museums for nearly 20 years, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko has been a museum director since 2001. Cinnamon became CEO of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2009. Before that, she was the director of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where she led the organization to the National Medal for Museum Service.

Key to Grant Success: The Relationship

Chances are that as a small museum, you are not trying to compete with funding raised by the local university. However, understanding how these massive grants are acquired holds the potential for success for small museums. The key to the university model is perfecting the relationship with the foundation.

The reason is that donors know how to give to a college not only because of name recognition but because they know someone, and, more importantly, trust someone, at this institution. People give to people, not to organizations. Understanding this helps us realize small museums hold a real advantage in going after donors and foundations due to our smallness since we are normally run by a core group of staff and board members. Getting your museum personnel out of the museum and into contact with these possible donors, large or small, is the next step.

In identifying support for possible grants, begin with sources with whom your museum personnel are acquainted. Even the smallest organization most likely has a network it may not even consider as a helpful start in forming a network. Board members, staff, and volunteers all have friends with similar interests. Almost all these interests or hobbies involve fundraising on some level, be it an American Legion Auxiliary bake sale or chili fundraiser to send the local high school to march in the Rose Bowl parade. In this opening phase of identifying help, do not fear casting your net too wide. Any contact you can harvest in terms of grant writing or fundraising is a source of possible help. As we all know, many individuals involved in volunteer organizations are involved in multiple entities aimed at improving their communities. With this in mind, add any organization or personal contacts to this initial listing of possible supporters in not only targeting grants but also providing advice during the grant process.

The second phase is simply to research possible grant sources. Who in the past, even the very distant past, has given to your organization? To whom have these past supporters given funds recently? Contact small museums similar to your organization in scope, size, and mission for possible success stories. Even these small organizations well outside your immediate area possess information for successfully developing relationships with donors. Look for donors who are funding organizations similar to your small museum. Investigate the possibility of this organization’s funding a grant in your area. Also look for similar foundations or donors in your area that have not previously given to small museums. If they have not, the chances are they are not currently in a relationship with a small museum. Enter you and your organization.

Once this list of individuals, foundations, and agencies is compiled, you need to establish connections and then work at staying connected. As with all relationships, developing relationships with these organizations, individuals, and groups will take time. To begin, their names need to be added to all your forms of outreach, from mailing lists to all the electronic forms you utilize for updating your membership and friends. Over a period of months, this process will demonstrate the impact of your small museum on your community through your sponsored events and other outreach activities. A special event can also be held for these members in demonstrating your past activities, future goals, and ways they can join your team in reaching these goals. All these steps, or some modifications of them, represent aspects of the “total relationship management” that places universities on the top of the heap in gathering large grants. Structuring their tactics to fit your small museum will yield dividends in reaching your long-term goals.

Benjamin Hruska is a PhD candidate in public history at Arizona State University. Before returning to graduate school, Hruska served as director of the Block Island Historical Society on Block Island, Rhode Island, and successfully obtained a building grant from the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission. In the summer of 2009, he worked as a court historian for the Department of Defense’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, DC.

What If My Board Won't Fundraise?

Simply put, if your board refuses to fundraise, you’re in a bit of a pickle. But, it’s not hopeless. The nonprofit sector functions because board members and staff fundraise side by side in their communities, and if you let the board off the hook, the organization is in jeopardy. The following offers just a few ways you can help the board become more comfortable with its fundraising role:

1. Recognize that fundraising takes many forms. It’s not always a direct, face-to-face ask that is needed from board members, but they all need to find a way to plug into fundraising. Perhaps you’re planning a special fundraising event. Have a board-level task force produce the event in total, alleviating the burden on the director.
2. During a board retreat, integrate training. Bring in a local development officer as a guest speaker or schedule a webinar during the retreat. (The dean for advancement at a local college or university would be an excellent speaker.) Introduce select readings, and find time for discussion. Be sure you create a continuum of training that both develops the existing board member and educates the new board member.
3. Ask the board to thank people for you. Of course you will have sent the standard thank-you letter with a personal note, but ask board members to drop a personal note for certain gifts and/or contacts. While this isn’t an ask, it is a critical part of the fundraising cycle.
4. Ask for names. As you develop a membership mailing list or other direct mail piece, ask board members to give you a list of names and addresses to include in the mailing. Everyone can do this; there really is no excuse for a board member to refuse to crack open his or her address book or Christmas mailing list and share some names. Make it an annual goal for each board member to provide five to ten new names for mailings and have him or her write a personal note on the letter before it goes into the mail.
5. Get yourself and other board members invited to social events. Maybe a board member has an annual Memorial Day picnic. Ask her to invite the board so that members can meet new people and start to broaden the network. Have a board member host an intimate dinner party so that you can get to know his friends casually. As director you’re there as a guest, but you also have the chance to learn about interests and build relationships.
6. Carry the torch. While the board’s fundraising skill set may take longer to develop than you would like, don’t stop fundraising. Sometimes the director will have to go the extra mile to secure funds, but the more success and ease of fundraising you share with the board, the more attractive the process becomes. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team, and when you’re hitting fundraising goals, you are winning!

Working in museums for nearly 20 years, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko has been a museum director since 2001. Cinnamon became CEO of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2009. Before that, she was the director of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where she led the organization to the National Medal for Museum Service in 2008. 

An Introduction to The Small Museum Toolkit: Book 2, Financial Resource Development and Management

Carol Bolton Betts, editor for the Illinois Heritage Association, wrote an overview of The Small Museum Toolkit as part of the IHA’s Technical Insert series.  The IHA has graciously allowed The Small Museum Toolkit to share this introduction in seven blog posts during July and August. The posts will help you to get to know about the content of the Toolkit from an outside perspective.

Money matters. This is especially true for the small museum, where financial responsibility is essential to survival. Yet the topic of money—how to raise it, how to spend it, and how to account for it—can strike fear in the hearts of any organization’s staff. This book will help to allay those fears.

In chapter 1, Brenda Granger draws from many acknowledged sources to assemble accepted practices, checklists, and informa­tion about sound fiscal management planning and implementa­tion. She emphasizes the need for transparency and presents the means to achieve it. Granger describes the tools that small museums will need, including a simple budget, a list of budgetary controls, a Form 990 checklist, and a checklist that will help the small organization assess its financial management practices. Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko is the author of chapter 2, in which she tackles “fearless fundraising.” Belief in an organization’s mission is just the start of a successful fundraising campaign. The author describes the segments of the population from which most sup­port comes and tells how to assess a community’s capacity for philanthropy. She offers guidance for approaching individuals and foundations and recommends methods that can be used by the successful fundraiser, such as annual giving, major gifts, sponsorships, earned income, and several other strategies.

Just how does a small museum approach a granting agency to secure funds? First, writes Benjamin Hruska in chapter 3, it must identify specific agencies and appropriate types of grants. He discusses the standard components of a grant; how the writing can best be managed; and how the document can be tailored to both an organization and the target foundation. Hruska includes examples of successful grant-seeking campaigns undertaken by three small museums.

In chapter 4, Allyn Lord surveys the important legal issues that a museum must face. These can pertain to the handling of funds, once they are raised, but also to organizational structure; tax-ex­empt status, where appropriate; and governance responsibilities. Lord is not dispensing legal advice, but she explains numerous areas where important legal considerations demand attention, including taxation, human resources, collections acquisition and ownership, copyright, audience and member activities, and risk management.

Adapted from Carol Bolton Betts, “An Introduction to The Small Museum Toolkit,” Illinois Heritage Association, Technical Insert 177 (May-June 2012). As a volunteer, Ms. Betts has done editorial work for the Illinois Heritage Association (illinoisheritage.org) since 1982. She was an editor at the University of Illinois Press for twenty years, working primarily on books about art and architecture, film, women’s history, and subjects related to the history of Illinois. Earlier she served on the staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and taught art history at Villanova University and at California State University–Los Angeles. 

Some Facts About Fundraising

There are a few well-proven facts that board members and staff need to understand as you evaluate and plan for current and future fundraising, or development, efforts, e.g., membership, annual fund, capital and endowment campaigns, planned giving, and major gifts.

*Individual giving is the cornerstone of nonprofit annual and major giving. In 2009, 75% of the charitable gifts to nonprofit organizations came from individual donors, with only 13% coming from foundations, another 8% from bequests, and 4% from corporations[i].
*Of the total giving in 2009, only 4% went to Arts, Culture, and Humanities (this is the sector where museums and history organization show up). The largest sector, religion, received 33% of the contributions. Of particular note, Education is second at 13%.[ii] The more connected you are with K-12 education, the more eligible you are for a bigger piece of the funding pie.
*On average, 80% of the dollars comes from 20% of your donor base; the reverse is true as well. As a result, both groups require your attention, but in different ways.
*It’s a very rare gift that is a large first gift. With caring stewardship combined with appropriate solicitation methods, identifiable segments of the membership base will move up the donor ladder toward larger and larger gifts. This process is a natural progression – a continuum – for our solicitation efforts and our donors.
*Donors must be an involved constituency and care about the service you provide.
*The board must be the vanguard of those supporting the Museum. They must have 100% participation in the giving program at the highest level they can each support. Major gifts usually come in large part from the board and their relationships.

It is also important to note that diversified income streams are critical to the sustainability of any organization. If one revenue source is negatively impacted by external or internal forces, then the others can pick up the slack in a given budget cycle.

Because individuals are 75% of the charitable giving pool, the Toolkit chapter, titled “Fearless Fundraising: A Roadmap for Kick-Starting Your Development Program,” by Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, focuses primarily on practical approaches to asking individuals to donate.

[i]“The Annual Report on Philanthropy for 2009,” Giving USA, accessed June 8, 2011, http://www.pursuantmedia.com/givingusa/0510/export/GivingUSA_2010_ExecSummary_Print.pdf
[ii] “The Annual Report on Philanthropy for 2009.”