Successful fundraising at museums

Author: Judy Niner, Development Partners

This fundraising guide is intended to help small and medium-sized museums to fundraise as successfully as possible.

It is aimed at anyone working in a museum, whether staff or volunteer, since there is a role for everyone in the fundraising process. It will be particularly relevant to those who have specific responsibility for fundraising strategy and implementation, and for management staff/volunteers and trustees.

What do we mean by fundraising?

For the purpose of this guide, we are defining fundraising as the creation of philanthropic revenue or capital investment. We are not therefore including activities that are better defined as income-generation, generally the sale of goods or services (including admissions). Some activities, such as membership, blur the lines of this definition but are included because of the role they can play in the cultivation of supporters.

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