Good governance is key to well-run, successful museums yet being a trustee can sometimes feel daunting. AIM offers practical, hands-on support to help your board develop and your museum thrive.
Whether your museum is already confident about its governance or if you are facing hard decisions about your future, we are happy to help. Following the AIM Hallmarks, AIM Higher aims to develop museum boards where:
All trustees are proactive advocates for the organisation and its purpose. They focus on strategic and significant issues. They avoid conflicts of interest and always wear only one hat at a time. The trustees and senior staff or volunteers understand their different roles and work well together towards the purpose.
Participating boards will receive one-to-one support from a specialist consultant, who will work with the board to identify and address areas for development.
Who is AIM Higher for?
The programme is open to all AIM member museums.
This programme provides support for your organisation, and in particular boards of trustees. We offer bespoke consultancy and expect this to be mainly used over two days. AIM Higher is intended for those museums who are facing a crisis and need urgent support.
If your need is ongoing mentoring over a longer period please look at our AIM Aspire programme and we have our Spark! leadership programme open for applications too. Please consider carefully which programme best meets your needs before you apply.
If you are looking for a trustee induction programme for your board please look at our trustee induction workshops.
Feedback from previous recipients:
“It really helped to have someone external come into our organisation and support us in a difficult period.”
“Our consultant was inspirational, so down-to-earth, and understood exactly where we were coming from.”
“I would wholeheartedly recommend AIM Higher to other museums. At a point that we were in crisis, AIM was there for us to turn to.”
Type of support
In 2024 we supported AIM members with the following needs:
- Building an effective board
- Governance review
- Closing a museum
- Succession planning
- Clarifying vision, mission and values
- Strategic planning
- Transitioning to a solely volunteer led organisation
- Reviewing governance prior to an Accreditation application
- Business planning for a new museum
- Mediation with key stakeholders
- Reviewing a Friends membership scheme.
How does it work?
Museums considering an application should contact AIM’s Head of Programmes, Margaret Harrison, for a preliminary discussion: [email protected].
If we can support your request, we will put you in touch with one of our consultants for an initial exploratory discussion after which we’ll ask you to fill in a short application form. In addition to basic details about your museum we will ask you:
- What are the main areas of focus for developing your Board?
- The agreed scope of work with the consultant and timetable for this
- How will you ensure that all Trustees are engaged with this process?
- What are the outcomes you would like to achieve?
This programme is very popular and we expect your museum to demonstrate a commitment to taking part. All applications must be supported by the Chair of Trustees. We also expect you to keep to agreed timescales in working with your consultant. Each consultancy costs AIM £1,300 and we welcome financial contributions of any size towards this.
Successful applicants will be required to confirm that they accept our Terms and Conditions and complete an end of project report with their consultant. We will also ask you to take part in any evaluation we may carry out and if possible, share your experiences through a case study.
Applications are assessed on a rolling basis for as long as funding remains available. If you’re considering an application, we would urge you to get in touch sooner rather than later!
Applications will be assessed by AIM staff and referred to AIM Board of Trustees if appropriate. We may also discuss your application with colleagues in Museum Development, if appropriate.
Our consultants
We have a large pool of consultants, based across England, with a diverse range of skills and experience. If you would particularly like to work with a specific consultant, do let us know.