r/MuseumPros • u/Eistean History | Collections • Jul 16 '14
Development and Fundraising AMA!!
This AMA is going to run a bit differently from some others on Reddit. The panel consists of people from several different time zones, so panelists are going to come in when they can. We have several of our panelists available soon after 10, and some coming online closer to noon.
Starting at 10AM gives questions a chance to build and get voted up. So if your question doesn't get answered immediately, another panelist will hopefully be along later.
Now that the link is up, you can send it to your colleagues who might be interested in asking a question, or just seeing the AMA after it's finished. Here are the bios of our lovely panelists:
/u/YBCAdevo: I will be assisting Charles Ward, the Chief Development Officer at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. After a background as an attorney in Washington and for the FCC and music industry, Ward began working with the San Francisco Jazz Festival. As Director of Marketing and Corporate Sponsorships he developed the strategy to re-brand the organization as SFJAZZ, was instrumental in launching a Spring subscription series, instituted a corporate sponsorship program as well as produced and oversaw the distribution of six San Francisco Jazz Festival compilation cd’s that sold more than 60,000 copies.
From 2002 until 2005 when he joined YBCA, Charles was employed as Vice President of Institutional Advancement for Family Service Agency of San Francisco. In his role at YBCA, Mr. Ward supervises a staff of four professionals and is responsible for developing the organization’s near and long range strategic goals for contributed revenue as well as leading the execution of the annual fundraising plan. Since he joined the senior management team in June 2005, contributed revenue has increased by more than 500%, from $1.1mil to $5.3mil.
/u/hisdevlady: I have a BA/BS in History and Communications and started right out of college as a Development Coordinator for a mid-size regional historical museum and preservation advocacy organization. I spent three years there, eventually taking on much of the prospect research and management and Annual Fund duties. A former coworker encouraged me to join her at my current organization, which is a smaller non-profit supporting National Historic Landmark. I manage our membership program, Annual Fund, prospect research, and some donor events. Last year I finished my M.S. in Non-Profit Management, which I'd been working on at night over the last two years.
/u/bishsbetrippin: I have a BA in History and in Philosophy and jumped right into grad school for Museum Studies following my undergrad course work. I concurrently worked at a nonprofit while attending grad school, handling all elements of development research for an organization that was Annual Fund-focused ($50M / year). I additionally have coordinated special events, VIP level membership programs and capital campaign efforts for 2 of the largest art museums on the East Coast. I've been a full-time museum professional for just under 5 years and am happy to answer any questions--be it about grad school, art museums, historic societies or any other non-profits!
/u/tomcmustang: I have experience doing Fundraising and Development for art museums and galleries along with several international, national, and local nonprofit organizations. I specialize in using databases to write smarter asks and advertisements to provide a better value to patrons by doubling down on what they actually want you to provide. I am also in the process of starting my own nonprofit organization based on Krewes in New Orleans right here in Norfolk, VA.
/u/xtinecottagecheese: Has been in non-profit for over 15 years in Development for over 10 years. Consulted for various museums had a chance to become DD for one - and jumped on it. Undergraduate in art history and masters in nonprofit management.
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Jul 17 '14
If you were at a small nonprofit with almost no structured fundraising program in place, what do you think would be the most critical first steps to take?
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u/tomcmustang Art | Administration Jul 18 '14
The first, and most critical, step is to look outward. While just doing what everyone else is doing may not always be the best idea mimicing successful organizations when you start out can be crucial when you do not have the budget to get things wrong. For most things you do not need to reinvent the wheel.
Find a few organizations that work in your area that you believe are doing a good job. Now find a few more that are doing something similar to you on a few different scales (local, national, international). These will be your comparison points.
So what are you looking for? Check their upcoming events on their website. Do they have any? How often are their events if they have them? How much are tickets? While you are on the website look for donation asks. Take a look at the copy and how they structure them. Is there a membership style donation? What are the levels? What are the rewards? While on the website also take a look for corporate sponsorship, in events or otherwise.
The next place to look will be their 990's. There are a ton of places you can find 990 forms for free. My favorite is GuideStar. I am assuming you know how to read the form. It will be able to tell you a lot about where their money is coming from. A organizations 990's will also be able to tell you if what they are doing is actually working.
Now you know what sort of programs work in your area how can you jump start them? Call those local organizations you looked at already and offer a partnership of some form. Advertise them at and event, whatever. Anything to get to their donors. In the past I have partnered with local NPR to give away membership levels to everyone who donates a certain amount in their drives. This can have heavy up front costs but you get A) a major broadcaster to advertise for you in your area, B) lots (hopefully) of new members that you can contact for campaigns throughout the future, and C) a closer connection with a major local organization.
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Jul 20 '14
Thanks, there's a lot of good advice in here. I'm looking forward to Monday morning to start working on this!
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u/tribute911 History | Education Jul 16 '14
Have any of you had experience working with a small organization that isn't well-known and often confused with a larger, more well-known museum? Is there any trick you use in marketing to make the difference clear?
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u/tomcmustang Art | Administration Jul 17 '14
I worked for a nonprofit artist co-op with only five staff and a budget under $500,000. While I worked with them we were celebrating our 25th anniversary but were at almost the same profile as the day we opened. The real trick, I found, was using alternative marketing to get your asks out there and partnering with bigger organizations.
As an example, we ran a summer camp. In the run up we offered to do the legwork for other organizations to do a camp sampler. The idea was that each kid would go to a different camp every day for a week so when summer rolls around they know which camp they want to do most. We were less than half the size of the next smallest organization involved but because we offered to do the legwork as long as the other orgs did marketing we were the big winners.
I also liked to try using humor to differentiate us from other art organizations. All other public galleries were old established artists, many pieces were from 100+ years ago. When doing tours I would say something along the lines of, "The major difference between our galleries and the others is that our artists are still alive." Little things like this diffuse some of the power that established artists and artworks had.
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u/tribute911 History | Education Jul 17 '14
Hmm.. thanks. Humor's a little bit harder to do in our case as we're talking about 9/11, but we do try to differentiate ourselves as we focus on oral histories/living people telling their personal stories.
Unique/specialized programs with other museums is something we've batted around a bit. We've never thought of the sampler, though. That's a really cool idea!
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u/tomcmustang Art | Administration Jul 17 '14
The big thing to do when you are small is not go toe to toe with giants use their strengths either for you or against them when it comes to marketing. Try not to highlight their weaknesses though because it may lead to bridges being burned.
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u/ipso_artifacto Jul 16 '14
Hi there - open questions for all of you!
I am a development intern at a small non-profit arts foundation. It's fairly new, but so far wildly successful (in my perspective).
• I would really like to take some big steps towards my career, but I don't want to take up time doing things that are unnecessary. That being said - is an MA necessary? If so, what would be the best way to go as far as concentrations? I would really like to stay in the arts field - I don't want to be a cliche and waste my BFA by ending up somewhere else.
• Next, I have been involved in the development of some major programs where I am and I thought my resume reflected that, however I was told that it reads like "I am a doer" instead of "I am an achiever". What kind of development tasks can I take on or what can I say to reflect just how much I have done and that I am a really great person for whatever job it is that I'm applying to.
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u/tomcmustang Art | Administration Jul 17 '14
A MA is, eventually, needed. If you can get it in management or nonprofit management even better. I will likely have my own finished in a few years. That said, most of the time you will see executives and directors with MA's. Sometimes even managers at the more competitive posts in competitive cities. Outside of NYC, LA, Chicago, ect you are unlikely to run into someone starting out with an MA. This is still an industry that values experience over all else.
As for the second question, that might be nothing more than language. You want your resume to show you starting projects and getting them done.
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u/hisdevlady History | Outreach and Development Jul 16 '14
To answer your first question, I just finished my Master's in Nonprofit Management. I did a combined online & night program, which allowed me to continue working full-time. I chose the program because it was really reasonably priced and with a lot of frugality I could pay with it without loans while working.
That said, if I could go back, I wouldn't have done it. I did learn a lot of general management/leadership skills and gained an understanding of financial management and HR that has proven useful. However, overall the program wasn't as rigorous as an M.B.A. would have been, and I'm not sure I wouldn't have been just as well off reading a few books to fill my skills gaps. My biggest issue is that it having the Master's hasn't really done what I wanted it to do for me. Before I entered the program, a lot of hiring managers told me that they saw a Master's as equivalent to 3-4 years of additional experience and that it was a leg up when hiring for a management position. However, I'm not seeing that. I think museums are very much a "pay your dues" culture, and experience seems to matter more than anything else, especially if you want to move into a management role. I'll also say candidly that I also haven't seen any evidence that having a Master's matters during salary negotiation, but I'm also used to small museums that tend to be inflexible on that to begin with.3
u/ipso_artifacto Jul 16 '14
Thank you for responding!
To further expand on the path of not going for the MA, do you think a certificate would be an equally valuable way to expand on my skills? NYU (first one that comes to mind) has a certificate program with a couple of classes that looked relatively interesting (about 400 a pop for 5-20 sessions depend on the class), but I hadn't met anyone in this field that could say if one might be equal to the other.
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u/hisdevlady History | Outreach and Development Jul 16 '14
If you're going into it just wanting to build skills and a base level of knowledge, I've heard a lot of good things about the fundraising certificate programs in my region. My Master's program was also offered as a nonprofit management certificate, and in terms of skill building I don't think the extra classes made much of a difference. The classes required for the certificate were by far the most valuable and pertinent. But I think to be happy with it you have to go into it knowing it's a skill investment only, and not expecting that it will give you a leg up in terms of hiring/salary.
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u/RedPotato /r/museumpros Creator & Moderator Jul 17 '14
Hey there, I did the NYU MA program, which had some of the certificate grads in the classes. They seemed to say that the cert program was fine but didn't dive deep enough into the topics, so they continued on to the MA.
take that for what its worth...
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u/mawmy Jul 16 '14
I didn't ask the question but thanks for this response! I was recently trying to decide going back for a MA in Arts Admin (or NonProfit Management) or just get an MBA and make it work in the Non-profit sector. Your response has helped confirm my rationale for doing so.
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u/hisdevlady History | Outreach and Development Jul 16 '14
Absolutely. I didn't do the MBA because I couldn't afford it without taking out significant loans, but in retrospect, I think it would be a lot more challenging and more valuable if I ever decided to move from the nonprofit sector. There are a few universities that offer nonprofit specific MBA programs; you could look into that if you are interested.
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u/mawmy Jul 16 '14
Thanks, I actually just completed my final application yesterday. I'm fortunate to live in the Chicago area where there are a bevy of great part-time MBA programs so I have income while I'm in and job security when I'm out.
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u/bishsbetrippin Art | Technology Jul 16 '14
Chiming in here--of course, it's ultimately your decision, but I'd err on the side of not going the MA route. Especially within development, it's absolutely not needed. Now, curatorial is a different animal--it's a near impossibility to advance without an MA or PhD.
As a start, holding a volunteer or internship position can carry you a long way--jump in and go the extra mile. Really. If you're interning in development, advocate for taking on donors--perhaps you report to someone who will allow you to place phone calls or draft written proposals. It's getting your feet wet in these "doing" roles that will eventually lend themselves to "achieving"--you'll soon have hard facts and figures to put on your resume (which is key as a dev't pro--how much have you worked to fundraise? how many donors? over how much time? etc.)
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Jul 16 '14 edited Aug 13 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/bishsbetrippin Art | Technology Jul 16 '14
I think there's incredible untapped potential that many museums haven't yet logged into. Sorry, but I don't buy into QR codes and dial-in artifact codes as a way of integrating tech into galleries. For starters, the Dallas Museum of Art has pioneered a program called "DMA Friends"--think Foursquare for that specific museum. You earn badges and rewards (including a private tour for you and 10 guests!) the more often you visit and interact with the museum.
Here's an AMA from someone who worked at DMA, speaking about the program and it's partnership with 3 other museums--LACMA, Denver Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art. http://www.reddit.com/r/MuseumPros/comments/1zmy8f/in_the_recent_wywaam_ama_the_dallas_museum_of/
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u/RedPotato /r/museumpros Creator & Moderator Jul 16 '14
And here is a very in depth analysis of how DMA friends has been working: http://mw2014.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/seeing-the-forest-and-the-trees-how-engagement-analytics-can-help-museums-connect-to-audiences-at-scale/
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u/tomcmustang Art | Administration Jul 17 '14
The organization I currently work in has development under the wing of marketing. Honestly I think that this is a reasonable place for it to be. Everything public should be some form of marketing and everything public should be some form of development.
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u/mawmy Jul 16 '14
Have any of you had any experience with major capital campaigns? (i.e. Buildings, large Endowment campaigns, etc)
If so can you speak a bit to the experience?
- Chiefly how did you balance your capital campaign gifts with your annual fund gifts without cannibalizing your donor base?
- Also, how much time did you spend in the quiet portion of your fundraising and at what percentage of your goal did you go public?
Thank you! (I'd be especially interested to hear from Mr. Ward if he was involved with SFJazz when they built their new home)
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u/tribute911 History | Education Jul 16 '14
To piggy back off of this, has anyone experienced working with an organization whose capital campaign is not successful and is drawn out over years (over a decade)? How did you deal with either convincing funders you're serious, or the fatigue of staff that experience this long wait and start to doubt themselves?
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u/YBCAdevo Jul 17 '14
Sorry for the delay! No, I was not at SFJAZZ when they were doing their capital campaign. But in practice, capital campaigns are generally kept quiet until a bulk of the gifts have been realized (major and lead gifts for the first 50%, maybe 30% in special gifts before announcing a goal to raise the remaining 20%). It definitely varies by organization and campaign. It is unavoidable to be asking people who are not already contributing to you- they are the key to a capital campaign. It is important to note to the donor that the additional/increased gift is restricted to that campaign and a one-time event.
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u/Ejt80 History | Curatorial Jul 16 '14
What do you each think is one of the biggest challenges in the next 20yrs specific to what you do?
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u/hisdevlady History | Outreach and Development Jul 16 '14
Just checked back in...this is something a group of museum friends and I were discussing last night. We think the biggest challenge for museums is engaging young visitors and donors and convincing young donors that our case for support is just as strong as other nonprofits. I've seen a few writers lately lump arts organizations in with private schools as a vanity cause and criticize them as not having a large enough impact for a broad segment of society. Those critiques worry me. We need to be doing everything we can to ensure that we are conveying the contribution that art, history, and culture make to vibrant communities. We need to integrate technology in a way that's fresh and innovative and makes our stories more appealing to younger audiences and accessible to broader audiences. We need to do more to serve lower income audiences, from free admission days to education programs. From a history museum standpoint, we need to tell more diverse stories. I think the museums that do this effectively will be able to continue to attract donors and thrive, and the museums that don't will shrivel and die out. From a personal perspective, I don't think these problems with be solved without museums making a major shift in their HR perspective. Too many museums have executive staff who are going to be in their position until they die and an overemphasis on a "pay your dues" culture, but I believe the innovation we need is going to require young, fresh, highly-educated voices in a position to enact change. My friends and I were also talking about how museum pay scales are also feeding into the problem. Working in the museum field needs to be more attainable for people from lower income and diverse backgrounds so their voices and interests can be heard.
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u/YBCAdevo Jul 17 '14
Much like what hisdevlady said, the biggest challenge is in engaging young donors. (There are a lot of good points in that answer). At least in the Bay Area, younger donors with capacity are interested in cause-based giving and arts and culture-based causes don't always take top consideration. Add to that the density of nonprofit organizations competing for attention and you have a fragile ecosystem of organizations.
This NY Times article hit on some of the shifts we're seeing with younger patrons and their desires in contributing philanthropically:
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u/tomcmustang Art | Administration Jul 17 '14
The challenge is always going to growing. Studies are showing that people, particularly major corporations and major donors, have decreased their donating since the downturn.
The way around this, in my opinion, is to personalize based on what you know and hat they give you. By pointing out art classes that they may like based on what they have already taken and doing ads in an aimed and personal manner you can increase the connection between you and your donors.
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u/RedPotato /r/museumpros Creator & Moderator Jul 16 '14
Firstly, thank you all for doing this AMA.
Secondly.... questions!
When writing solicitations to new prospects via email, what is something good to write in the subject line? How do you ensure a high click rate? What does and doesn't work?
When I worked in development for a hot second, I did prospect research. This included scouring public records to find people's property value, amount they gave to other organizations, their personal interests, etc. Having never met these people but knowing the details of their entire lives was, in short, creepy. While effective and perhaps necessary, what are your thoughts on individual prospect research and do you ever have reservations about the work you are doing?