Museums and cultural institutions are tasked with preserving the histories of an area for future generations. The normal operational costs of running a cultural institution coupled with significant loss of revenue associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is making the financial aspect of museum operation increasingly difficult. How can small museums and cultural institutions plan to achieve long-term financial stability?
Fundraising
General fundraising Resources
A museumâs fundraising strategy can help boost donations as well as generate loyal donors. These resources focus on building effective fundraising strategies, skills, and ensuring donor retention.
Webinar: Write Your Own Fundraising Plan
Cassie Holcomb of the Bateman Foundation and the Robert Bateman Centre will touch on the critical components of a fundraising plan like targets, memberships, grants, donations and appeals, stewardship, and new revenue streams.
Fundraising During Uncertain Times
Watch a panel discussion and live Q and A with fundraising experts and sector leaders on how you can weather the uncertainty ahead.
Fundraising for Small Non-profits
Summary: In this webinar, Cindy Wagman, President and CEO of The Good Partnership will show you how you can leverage unique opportunities of being a small nonprofit so you can stop âcompetingâ and start raising more money.
Free Fundraising Courses and Certificates
Build your fundraising skills with these free fundraising courses and certificate programs from experts in online fundraising, donation campaigns, email marketing, fundraising events, and more
A Guide to Donor Retention
If youâre a fundraiser or nonprofit development professional, youâve likely heard the term âdonor retention.â Itâs one of the hottest topics of discussion in the nonprofit sector. But what is donor retention? And why is it important?
Ethical considerations for fundraising
The way cultural institutions go about fundraising can bring up ethical implications. The resources provided in this section are intended to ensure cultural institutions are financially ethical and accountable with donated funds.
Common Ethic al Issues in Fundraising
Ethics are the moral principles be hind the operation and regulation of your organization, and apply to all areas including your marketing to prospective or existing donors.
The Accountable Nonprofit Organization
The Accountable Nonprofit Organization is a statement of principles to guide charities. It outlines the operations and procedures a nonprofit undertakes to show it is accountable to donors, the people it serves, and the general public.
Code of Ethical Standards
The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) exists to foster the development and growth of fundraising professionals and the profession, to promote high ethical behavior in the fundraising profession and to preserve and enhance philanthropy and volunteerism.
Creating a legacy giving program
Creating a legacy giving program can ensure the long-term financial stability of a museum. Legacy giving, also known as planned giving, is where individuals give a donation in their will that will be given to the organisation upon the donorâs death. End-of-life planning can be a sensitive subject, and the resources below describe how to begin to build a legacy giving program for your organisation.
Nonprofit Planned Giving: A Complete Guide
A planned giving program is something all nonprofits should consider starting. Planned giving programs â sometimes called legacy giving â help donors make plans to leave money or assets to a nonprofit at a future date, both during their lifetimes and after death in their will.
Legacy Giving: 5 Steps To Create a Game-Changing Pipeline
Finding ways to have conversations and encouraging dialogue with your members and donors has never been more important than it is right now.
BCMA's Legacy Giving Program
While donations usually are the answer to the question âhow can I help today?â, legacy gifts are the answer to âhow can I help tomorrow?â and âhow would I like to be remembered?â
Grants
There are an array of grants available to cultural institutions through federal, provincial, and municipal governments. These grants are sometimes managed and disbursed by heritage associations (for example the CMA, BCMA or Heritage BC). The BCMA keeps a running list of grant opportunities on our website. This list is by no means exhaustive but provides a jumping off point for organisations looking for new grant opportunities.
A grant application usually requires gathering information about your organisation and writing summaries of your project/funding needs. Although the process is not usually complicated, it can be time-consuming for smaller institutions. Resources below are intended to aid in writing compelling and successful grant applications.
Grants Workbook and Templates - Lucidea
Lucidea has partnered with Rachael Woody of Rachael Cristine Consulting LLC to create a set of invaluable grant writing resources. Our complete toolkit includes a grant directory, case studies of successful grant projects, and a workbook with plug-and-play grant project templates.
Free Certificate in Grant Writing
Learn the essentials of finding and writing grants with this free certificate program from NonprofitReady. Co-developed with CNM, these short online courses cover the entire grant cycle. Learn how to win grants for your nonprofit.
Grants for Museums
Explore funders and highlighted opportunities relevant to cultural heritage organizations.
Foundations
A foundation is a grant-giving organisation that operates with the purpose of giving out money, in the form of grants to other non-profits. Each foundation usually has a mandate for what kinds of organisations or projects they are looking to fund. Applications to foundations are often similar to grant applications. The BCMA lists a small number of foundations on our grant opportunities page, though there are many more foundations in Canada that donate to arts and culture institutions
Corporate Giving
Many businesses have corporate giving programs that give resources to support local organisations and projects. These programs offer money or products to local organisations with the aim of boosting the publicâs image and perception of the business giving the donation. Corporate giving usually comes in one of three forms â funding, sponsorship, or in-kind donations. Businesses with a giving program usually have an application page on their website which will look similar to a grant application. It usually takes a minimum of 8 weeks for corporations to respond to a request, therefore it is prudent to apply well in advance of the start of any projects or events.
Using keywords such as âcorporate givingâ, âcommunity givingâ, and âcorporate social responsibilityâ are a good jumping off point when you are doing internet research on whether a business has a corporate giving program.
Corporate Funding
Many large companies have granting programs to fund community organisations and projects. Below is a list of businesses in Canada with corporate funding programs.
Banks and Credit Unions in the area local to your institution often have corporate giving programs and are looking to fund projects in the communities in which they operate. Checking bank websites for corporate giving opportunities is an excellent first step when your institution is first considering corporate giving opportunities.
Corporate Funding Programs
Many large companies have granting programs to fund community organisations and projects. Explore this list of businesses in Canada with corporate funding programs.
Corporate Sponsorship
Corporations will give money in exchange for visibility and promotion during a community event. Sponsorship is a good option for larger community events you may host where there will be public visibility for your sponsors. Sponsorship applications for larger corporations are usually available on the company website, smaller businesses can be contacted directly (via phone or email).
In-Kind Giving
Corporations and local businesses may give products in exchange for promotion. These products could be items that a museum needs to operate, items for a special event, or even products for fundraising purposes (i.e. items for a raffle basket). Larger companies will usually have a form on their website where you can apply for in-kind gifts, whereas smaller businesses can be contacted directly (via phone or email).
Financial Management
Good financial information is critical to the effective management of all businesses, including museums. Effective financial management benefits all aspects of the facilityâs operation by providing relevant information to the board, management and staff. These resources detail best practices for financial management and provide free financial management software for cultural institutions.
Best Practices: Financial Management
The intent of this module is to document the fiduciary responsibility of museum management by explaining basic principles and standards of financial management.
Free Cloud Based Financial Planning Tool for the Cultural Sector
The intent of this module is to document the fiduciary responsibility of museum management by explaining basic principles and standards of financial management.
Financial Sustainability Resources
The BCMA previously hosted a financial sustainability week which provided many resources detailing alternative revenue streams for museums such as gift shops, cafes, investing, show business, and more!
Financial Sustainability Resources
This toolkit will investigate how your organization can take steps towards financial sustainability with earned income, facility use, food service, e-commerce, travel programs, and philanthropy.
BCMA Webinar- Financial Sustainability Week: Show Business
Filming at your museum can be a way to increase your revenue and aid in financial sustainability.
