Funders

Public funders

Public funders tend to launch specific grant programmes reflecting their strategic objectives. Grants will almost always be restricted – meaning they have to be spent on the project (capital or revenue) you have described in your application. Only applications that meet the funding stream precisely will be considered, so always think carefully about this before applying and check that the funder’s demands match your own objectives. Larger grants will often require a two-stage process and can be very time-consuming.

Funders of museums and heritage include:

Department of Culture Media and Sport
National Lottery Heritage Fund
Arts Council England
Historic England
Museums Galleries Scotland
Historic Environment Scotland
Welsh Government Culture Division
Cadw
Northern Ireland Museums Council
Local enterprise partnerships
Local authorities (eg: Section 106, Community Infrastructure Levy)
Regional Museum Development offices.

Many (but not all) grantmakers will expect you to partially match their grant with funds from elsewhere. Also, be prepared that you may have to invest your organisation’s money in extensive preparatory work before being ready to apply for funding.

Funding streams are reviewed regularly and changes made to them. Always check on the appropriate websites and sign up for social media and email alerts to keep yourself informed about new programmes.

Charitable trusts and foundations

In 2020/21 70% of private investment in museums and heritage came from trusts and foundations. This is an extremely important category of funders and should be the top priority of most museum fundraising strategies. The total amount given has reduced slightly and, more importantly, the number and range of organisations applying for grants has increased. This means more competition – only the best applications will be successful.

Increasingly, most grants from trusts and foundations are restricted to specific capital projects or revenue activities. It is difficult to secure grants to cover core costs.

The way in which trusts and foundations give is constantly changing in response to market conditions and income. This affects not only what is funded but also methods of application and assessment. Common adjustments include narrowing grantmaking criteria, scrutinising bids and applicant finances in greater detail, taking longer to make decisions, reducing (or increasing) individual grant amounts by focusing on fewer projects or spreading the funding more widely.

For larger projects, some trusts will be concerned about an organisation’s likelihood of finding match funds to reach a fundraising target. They will rarely fill the whole funding gap themselves, but realise the project will be dependent on you being able to attract other funders. Many will want to understand your fundraising plan and be confident that it is realistic. Some will not confirm a grant until other funds have been found, making it more difficult to find vital seedcorn money.

Identify

The first step is to identify which trusts might consider funding your project or organisation. To do so, you can use a subscription search engine such as the Directory of Social Changes’ Funds Online or the free Heritage Funding Directory managed by The Heritage Alliance and the Architectural Heritage Fund. Your local authority may also keep a list of possible funders in your area. Checking which trusts have funded comparable organisations can also be very helpful. The result of this identification phase should be a long-list of potential funders.

Your long-list might include some or all of the following:

Major trusts who regularly give to museums and heritage organisations, such as:

Local and regional trusts who specify geographic areas of interest, eg: the 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust – preference given to ‘charities operating in the West Midlands and in particular the Coventry and Warwickshire area’.

Trusts who fund projects that deliver outcomes to particular groups of beneficiaries, eg: the elderly, young people with learning disabilities, young carers etc. These trusts will be useful in funding your social impact, learning and community work but won’t necessarily have a history of funding museums.

Research

Look at each trust on your long-list in detail and whittle them down to those who have the highest likelihood of supporting your museum/project. Quality not quantity is the best route for trusts and foundations – a few well written, well matched applications will reap much better results than churning out multiple appeals that don’t resonate with the targeted funders. Take time to visit individual trusts’ websites, where available, and look at their accounts on the charity commission website.

You are looking for:

Criteria for grantmaking
Examples of who and what they’ve funded in the past
Application deadlines and decision timetables
Funding levels – what size of grant do they give
Application requirements.

Check their list of excluded projects or activities and whether they allow unsolicited applications. Almost all trusts exclude projects which start before the grant is awarded. Benchmark your project against similar projects they have funded to get an idea of how much you could ask for.

Cultivate

Where possible, ring the administrator to find out more or to discuss your project with them. This often elicits helpful information and also makes them aware of your project when it arrives on their desk.

Always circulate a list of the trustees of potential grantmaking trusts to your own organisation’s trustees. Connections can help greatly and may mean a trust is more likely to consider your application. The link person might be able to write a covering letter, or at least alert their contact to your need and request for funds.

Solicit

To succeed your application needs to:

Align closely with the trust’s aims and criteria
Be well written and clearly presented
Be factual and refer to robust evidence of need
Focus on the beneficiaries and impact of the project on them. Outcomes are really important to trusts
Provide evidence that your organisation is able to deliver the project effectively.

Many of the larger trusts have their own application forms online which you must use when required. Others have a list of questions that they expect you to cover in the application, and the rest give very little guidance except perhaps the number of pages they are prepared to read. It is extremely important that you meet these basic requirements. Some will ask for additional documents, such as accounts.

Every trust will have different priorities and it is necessary to bear this in mind when applying – is there a particular element of your project which would be of greater interest than the whole? Are they more passionate about history, architecture, education or the local community? No two applications should ever be the same.

The length of the application will depend on the requirements of the trust and the complexity of the project you are putting forward. However, less is generally better than more.

Don’t underestimate the importance of evidence. Vague references to the importance of your organisation or project won’t hold much sway – trusts like to see the evidence of need, impact measurement and relevant evaluation that have led you to the plan you are presenting.

Steward

Always report back to funders on the progress and achievements of your project. This will develop your relationship and stand you in good stead for future grant requests.

Individuals

Members, friends and volunteers

Many museums have some sort of friends or membership scheme. These are low-cost programmes often based on multiple admission benefits plus additional events and possibly discounts. With more museums adopting the annual pass form of Gift Aid ticketing, the benefit of some of these membership programmes has been compromised (both to the organisation and to the member) and care needs to be taken to ensure they remain profitable and appropriate to the motivations of the members. Whilst these schemes provide museums with a one-size-fits-all channel of communication with a large group of supporters, they present a risk that such a generic approach satisfies none of them. Regularly surveying friends/members to be sure of motivations and preferences can help ensure a membership programme remains relevant to its members and worthwhile for the museum.

Higher level membership programmes, often referred to as Patrons, need to be established with great care. As described below, major donors (often the same people) need to be treated as individuals and trying to herd them into a ‘scheme’ may not be the best way to cultivate relationships.

When launching a fundraising appeal, the best starting point is with those closest to you – your members, friends and volunteers. They are already committed to the organisation. However, just because they are already involved and have shown that they care about the organisation, doesn’t mean they will feel minded to give to an appeal or capital campaign. You will need to ensure you bring these people with you as you develop plans for the future; that you keep them informed of progress; and that you listen to their views about the museum’s direction and plans. Newsletters and virtual briefings are great ways to engage these supporters, and the occasional survey in which you investigate their motivation for support as well as their satisfaction with the organisation, can be extremely useful. Being able to talk to them individually at events is invaluable.

Don’t ask supporters for money too often. In addition to friends/members subscriptions, it might be appropriate to run an appeal in alternate years.

Major donors

A major donor is someone who makes a sizeable gift to the organisation. They may or may not be a friend, member or volunteer. They need to have both the capacity and the motivation to give – just being rich isn’t enough. When attracting new donors, it will help if there is a personal connection to the organisation – hence the important role trustees can play in introducing people. Cultivation and stewardship need to be personal and tailored to each individual to enable them, and you, to build a close relationship.

Do not rush to ask a potential donor to give their support, but allow time for the relationship to develop. You are much more likely to get a positive response, and potentially a larger gift as well. Examples of opportunities to develop these relationships include:

Behind the scenes tours
Opportunities to meet experts before or after a larger event, e.g: a lecture
Identifying and sharing an object or collection of particular interest to the donor, eg: local to their home
Coffee, tea and lunch meetings.

Small, bespoke events will be much more effective than large ones which take a great deal of planning and organisation whilst rarely being conducive to getting to know people better.

Only once you understand a potential donor’s motivations and interests can you consider what they might want to support and how. Asking too soon, or for the wrong thing, can destroy the relationship you’ve been trying to build. Be patient and invest time and thought to create the long-term supporter you want and need.

Business

There has been a steady decline in corporate giving in recent years – very few companies still make gifts to not-for-profit organisations and expect nothing in return. In general, their involvement with a museum will require direct benefit in terms of brand association, corporate social responsibility agendas or staff volunteering programmes. It is a business investment not a philanthropic one.

Corporate membership has been badly hit during the pandemic. It is not clear whether it will recover to previous levels.

Business sponsorship continues to benefit London-based museums disproportionately – it is notoriously difficult to secure cost-effective sponsorship arrangements outside the capital.

Museums most likely to attract sponsorship outside London are those with collections that align with particular industries – transport sectors for example.

For those of a more generic nature, it is extremely difficult. If you are considering including business sponsorship in your fundraising strategy, consider two questions:

Once you have factored in the benefits (in resource and cash) you will need to deliver to the sponsor, and taken into
account a realistic income, is a sponsorship likely to be profitable?
Would the time you spend approaching, negotiating with and then delivering to a sponsor be used more profitably pursuing a different fundraising avenue?

Companies most likely to sponsor a small or medium sized museum are those that are privately owned and where the owner/director has a personal interest in the organisation. This is where personal contacts can help, for example through trustees.

Other organisations

There are other grantmaking organisations you could consider, e.g.:

Postcode Lottery – organised into separate regional trusts. Use the ‘postcode trust finder’ to locate the one appropriate for your site.
Landfill Communities Fund (via Entrust)
AIM – click here to see the AIM grants currently open for applications

Social investment may also be appropriate for a project. Examples of available loan schemes, for example, include:

The Architectural Heritage Fund which focuses on acquisition, reuse or redevelopment of buildings which are of historic or architectural importance
The NESTA Arts Impact Fund.

Don’t forget that funds from your own reserves can help you kickstart or match-fund a project. If a fundraising campaign is successful, you may be able to replace and reuse those funds as seedcorn for another project.

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