Getting fit to fundraise

What do you need to fundraise?

Effective leadership and governance structures
A clearly articulated purpose
A robust business plan laying out current and future aims and detailed, realistic propositions to achieve them
A financial plan proving sustainability, or progress towards it
External evidence to support the need for the organisation, its work and any projects to be funded
A case for support which draws on all the information above to answer the question ‘why should this museum be supported?’
A fundraising strategy developed with professional expertise if possible
An internal team of people, staff and/or volunteers, who have time to dedicate to fundraising and understand the roles they play
The support of its community – especially volunteers and members who can act as advocates
Established ways to communicate with its community and wider audiences
Systems to manage data, track relationships and plan/monitor actions
Financial processes to accept, monitor and report on funds received.

An objective assessment of your organisation’s fundraising fitness can help you determine what needs to be put in place, or improved, before starting a new fundraising programme or invigorating existing activities. This preparation can make the difference between success and failure.

Case for support

The case for support is the core document that brings together all the information required to make a compelling argument for why you need money. It explains what you need money for, who will benefit from it and how. It combines the strengths of the organisation with honest assessment of its weaknesses and provision that is currently lacking. It is an internal document, from which tailored approaches and proposals will be created for potential funders. With this document in place (and assuming it is shared with trustees, staff and volunteers) you can be confident that everyone can present the organisation and/or project consistently.

The case for support should include information from the business and financial plans, together with external evidence and relevant evaluation to back up your arguments for why the work of your organisation or the outcomes of a particular project are so important. It is important that the case for support is unique to your museum, even though there will be themes that are common across the sector.

Cultivation cycle

Whatever category of donor or grantmaker you are considering approaching, the cycle of cultivation remains broadly the same:

Identify: Gather information on everyone you think might be interested in your museum/project. Get ideas from others – trustees, volunteers, other stakeholders – and make sure your past donors are on the long-list.

Research: The objective is to whittle down the long-list by finding out more about each potential donor/grantmaker. Be quite brutal – does this person/organisation really care about what you do, or could they (usually through close contacts) be made to care? It is better to end up with a short and manageable list of potential prospects with whom you will be able to communicate, than one with loads of names that you are unlikely to be able to reach.

Cultivate: Get to know your potential funders as well as you can, and help them to understand what you do better. Find out about their motivation to care about your museum, their interests and the other things they support.

Solicit: Only when you are confident that your potential donor/grantmaker/group of donors understands and supports what you’re trying to achieve (and will feel that they can play a part in making it happen) should you actually ask for money. Before you ask, think carefully about what you’re asking for – are you making best use of this relationship, or would it be better to wait for a project the donor may find more attractive? Should you be waiting to make a larger request? If an ask is unsuccessful, don’t give up! It obviously wasn’t the right time or the right ask – try to find out why. Continue to cultivate the donor – they may need more information, or it might not be the right project/initiative for them.

Steward: Don’t be tempted to think a donation or grant is the end-result. It’s very much the start of the next stage of the relationship with a donor/grantmaker. You have convinced them to support you – now you need to show them that they made the right decision. Report back on progress; keep in touch; involve them. Your past donors are your best donors: Steward them well and they may become life-long supporters.

Fundraising strategy

Fundraising ideas are the easy bit! Too often, people are led by what they see another (sometimes incomparable) organisation doing rather than really analysing and focusing on the fundraising method/s that will work for them. This can waste both time and opportunity – it is vital that limited resources are used in the most effective way. New ideas can sound fun and exciting, but it is often the old and tested methods of fundraising that will work best.

Essentially, fundraising is about relationships. The vast majority of your time should be spent creating and nurturing those relationships, not asking for money. There are no short cuts. It can help to think about your own charitable giving to understand what makes you give to a particular organisation – you are probably unlikely to give (or continue to give) unless you feel confident in what your money will be spent on and how. Large charities with high profiles and well-understood charitable objectives (e.g: RSPCA, Cancer Research UK, National Trust) have built up their reputations over many years but still work hard to ensure confidence in them and their missions and work, museums have to work even harder to communicate their case for support.

The fundraising strategy should answer the questions:

Why do we need to raise funds and what for?
How much do we need to raise?
When do we need the funds?
Who cares about what we do and might want to help make it happen? What funders and funding streams are available to us?
What do we need to do to raise the funds we need in the most time and cost effective way?
Which methods are we going to use?
How will we prioritise to make best use of our resources?
What do we need to invest in order to get the results we need?
Who will do what?
What are the major risks and how can we mitigate them?

The strategy needs to sit within a long-term context –for example, are you trying to build up an endowment to generate annual revenue or are you planning a major capital project in 5 or 10 years time? The likelihood is that you will want to continue to fundraise in the future, and that has an impact on how you go about raising funds for shorter-term projects and needs. It means investing time in relationships for the long-term and not always expecting an immediate return. It requires patience and commitment.

One of the problems small and medium-sized museums face is the resource, in terms of expertise and time, available to dedicate to fundraising. The solution is to limit the range of fundraising activities/programmes that you implement. You will need to stand firm against trustees and others who, when faced with concerns about funding, want you to focus on quick wins and new ideas. These can divert your attention from the programmes that will result in a much better return on investment.

Most fundraising strategies for AIM members should prioritise:

Trusts and foundations
Individual giving – from major donors and from supporter groups, eg: members
Gifts in wills
Donation boxes.

The fundraising team

Fundraising requires time. It isn’t a tap that can be turned on and off. The benefits of continual investment will be cumulative.

People will be needed to:

Develop and monitor the fundraising strategy
Research potential funders
Cultivate relationships
Develop the case for support into proposals and applications
Make presentations and hold meetings with potential funders
Process donations and ensure acknowledgement of grants and gifts
Steward donor relationships
Keep accurate records.

This should never all fall to just one person. Even if your organisation has a professional fundraiser to guide and manage the processes, they will be working with trustees, members of staff and/or volunteers and other stakeholders to ensure all the organisation’s resources are being harnessed to build and manage strong relationships.

If a fundraising committee is formed, it is important to have terms of reference so each member understands what they are being asked to contribute. Essential to their role is ensuring an appropriate fundraising strategy is developed and followed. Each member
should also expect to play an active role in introducing potential funders, cultivating relationships and taking every opportunity to advocate on behalf of the museum.

One member of the committee (ideally a member of the staff/volunteer management team) should be responsible for coordinating all fundraising approaches and managing data.

Fundraising consultancies can be a useful way of adding resource to your team to help determine the fundraising strategy, develop the case for support and grant applications and even to run campaigns when the organisation needs to step up its fundraising for
a specific purpose and time period.

There is plenty of excellent fundraising training available organised, for example, by:

AIM
Chartered Institute of Fundraising
Regional Museum Development teams
Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund sometimes fund special programmes to support fundraising in the heritage and cultural sector.

When selecting training opportunities, make sure you are investing in those that are relevant to your fundraising strategy and not wasting time and energy developing expertise in a method that is not appropriate to your organisation.

Communications for fundraising

The objective of communications for fundraising is to create the environment in which people want to give. This means making sure they feel informed, involved and valued. It is as much about attitude as the physical means of communication – an organisation that is open, transparent and keen to listen is much more likely to garner support than one which appears aloof.

It helps to have a consistent charitable message that encapsulates why someone might want to support the organisation. This message can be used in various ways, including to encourage sales in the shop or café, Gift Aid on admission or the use of donation boxes. It helps communicate that the museum is not-for-profit and needs support, and can inspire confidence in the future of the organisation. The importance of this ‘trickle’ communication is reflected in the National Arts Fundraising School’s understanding that 50% of legacies received by charities in the UK come from people not known to the organisation – in other words, they are not members, friends, volunteers or existing donors.

Any museum wanting to fundraise must have a well-functioning, attractive website, including:

An ‘About’ section which explains legal status and governance of the organisation, including biographies of trustees and senior staff.
A ‘Support’ link in the top level menu leading directly to fundraising information
Links to an online giving platform (eg: CAF, JustGiving etc) with ‘donate now’ buttons
Inclusion of the Gift Aid logo on the ‘Support’ page (assuming the museum is registered for Gift Aid)
Charity registration number on each page
Opportunity to sign up to an e-newsletter
Link to a Privacy Notice which includes the organisation’s policy for use of data for fundraising purposes.

Social media such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook are increasingly used very effectively in the sector. They are successful in communicating with particular demographic groups, but it’s important to remember that many of your potential donors may not follow those accounts.

Stewardship

Your best donor is your last donor. There’s a lot of truth in this fundraising adage. The purpose of stewardship is to build better and closer relationships with people who have already shown they care about your organisation and what you do. These are the people most likely to support you in the future. Investment in stewardship is likely to be far more rewarding than constantly trying to find new donors.

Stewardship encompasses everything you do to nurture your relationship with an individual or organisation after they have made a gift/grant. It includes:

Saying ‘thank you’
Ensuring a gift/grant is acknowledged (eg: on a donors’ board) appropriately
Reporting back on the impact a gift /grant has had on the organisation and on other beneficiaries
Creating opportunities for the donor/ grantmaker to get to know the organisation better, and for you to understand their interests and motivations
Updating them on changes at the organisation such as new trustees and members of staff
Listening to their views and thoughts about the organisation.
Responding to ideas and proposals.

Stewardship works when it’s personal and tailored to the interests and motivations of each donor/ grantmaker. This personalisation can be overlooked when organisations try to herd donors into membership-style schemes and programmes. Particularly with major donors, focus on giving them individual attention.

Administration: data and record keeping

Good administrative systems are vital to fundraising. They enable you to account properly for everything you receive, steward people well, and pass on important information to your successors so that relationships don’t leave the organisation when you do.

How you collect, use and destroy personal information for fundraising purposes needs to comply with current legislation. New rules under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in 2018 and it is important to ensure you keep up to date with requirements. We recommend referring to the following sites and documents:

General information on GDPR:

AIM Success Guide: Successfully managing privacy and data regulations in small museums
Information Commissioner’s Office: Guide to data protection
The Chartered Institute of Fundraising: GDPR: The Essentials for Fundraising Organisations
The Data Protection Network is a very useful website. Sign up to their newsletter to receive free news, insight and how-to-guides to support your day to day data protection work.

Legitimate interest:

Information Commissioner’s Office: Lawful basis for processing: Legitimate Interests guidance

Fundraising research:

The Chartered Institute of Fundraising: Connecting people to good causes: A practical guide to fundraising research

Data retention:

The Data Protection Network

For many smaller museums, data for fundraising can be kept on Excel spreadsheets – this is often the easiest way to get to grips with information about your supporters. However, larger organisations, or those with large numbers of donors, should consider investing in an offthe-shelf fundraising database. These vary in price and functionality greatly and can be server or cloud-based. We have recently seen the following used successfully:

It is probably not wise to invest in this sort of system unless you have a dedicated fundraiser or fundraising team. Whatever system you use, you will need to find a way of recording communications with donors and planning future actions.

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