Building resilience: new business models for museums

Museums are having to expand and diversify their resources beyond public funding.

One source, uh, with which museums are very familiar is sponsors and donors, but your research shows that the expectations of these traditional funding partners are changing.

Can you explain some of these changes and, uh, the consequences for museums?

Uh, yes, absolutely.

So I would say that the first important change is that sponsors, donors, and foundations increasingly want to be more than just, uh, passive providers of money.

So in the past, a corporate sponsor might have been satisfied with its logo appearing on an exhibition poster or on a museum wall.

But today, partners often want a deeper relationship.

They, they may want to be involved in developing programs, creating products, reaching particular audiences, supporting sustainability objectives, or demonstrating measurable social impact.

Individual donors and foundations are, I would say, also becoming more strategic.

They increasingly ask museums to explain what difference their contribution will make or which communities will benefit and how the results will be evaluated.

So during the pandemic, for example, many funders became more interested in digital access, community wellbeing, and social inclusions.

So museums therefore have to present a convincing case not only for the artistic importance of a project but also for its wider public value.

And this creates opportunities because partnerships can provide expertise, they can provide technology, networks, and access to new audiences, and not only money.

However, it also creates consequences for museums.

So these relationships require much more management, negotiation, and evaluation.

So museum needs staff who understand fundraising, who understand partnership management, communication, and also very importantly, impact measurement and how to communicate such impact towards donors.

There is also an important ethical dimension.

Museums are increasingly scrutinized over who supports them and where the museum, where the money comes from.

So museums have faced several controversies.

So I would say that museums now, now face double accountability.

They must respond to the expectations of funders, but they must also remain accountable to artists, visitors, employees, local communities, and wider public.

Gosh, it's a really very complicated situation, isn't it? Um, it-- and it sounds, in fact, that, um, this kind of new relationship with, uh, sponsors and, and donors is i-in itself kind of resource intensive.

Would you agree with that?

Yeah, absolutely.

I absolutely agree.