Financial Sustainability

Explore dozens of articles, member resources, and On-Demand Programs on financial sustainability in museums.

The Matchmaker: A conversation with Charles Best, CEO and Founder, DonorsChoose.org

By Susan Breitkopf

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2010 edition of Museum magazine. During a lunch conversation with colleagues at a public high school in the Bronx, former teacher Charles Best had a thought. Why not directly connect …
Do Innovation, and Diversity, Sometimes Look Like Failure?

By Elizabeth Merritt

The New York Times reports that the Brooklyn Museum is struggling to meet its attendance goals, using director Arnold Lehman’s strategy of building local audience rather than competing with other NY museums for tourists. The article cites …
Why Diversify?

By Cecelia Walls

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2010 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Q: I’ve been reading AAM’s 2009 Museum Financial Information. Great data—thanks! But I’m not so sure about the advice you give in …
Shaping the Financial Future of Museums: A Commentary by Marie Malaro

By Elizabeth Merritt

This week’s guest blogger is Marie C. Malaro, a lawyer, author and retired university professor. For many years she was legal counsel for the Smithsonian Institution, and later was Director of the Graduate Program in Museum Studies …
Spotting the Long News

By Elizabeth Merritt

I sometimes use this blog to highlight news items that may presage important developments in the future—the leading edge of trends lapping at our toes. This short TED talk by Kirk Citron asks a good question: how do we know which stories …
Save Museums, Save the World?

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’m cynic when it comes to slogans and tag lines. I basically agree with Ivan Levinson, who wrote that at best tag lines are “like a Japanese haiku – a highly concentrated form of expression that attempts to communicate an essence, a …
Mapping the Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

The Institute for the Future and Business for Social Responsibility have released their Sustainability Outlook Map charting four potential stories of the future. The map explores ways of approaching challenges to the environmental, social …
Grab the Popcorn and Settle in for 2010—Year of All Things Local

By Elizabeth Merritt

Futurist Faith Popcorn’s predictions for 2010. She declares it will be a year of Local Cocooning. See her observations on the growing preference for “Locotainment” –for example, attendance at minor-league baseball games at the expense of …
Museums as Aggregators?

By Elizabeth Merritt

This guest post is contributed by Allyson Lazar, museum consultant and freelance registrar based in Los Angeles, Calif. You can follow Allyson’s musings at her blog Two Ls and A Y. Reporter Sandra Hughes of CBS ends her video article …
A Side Note on Future Financial Models

By Elizabeth Merritt

The Indianapolis Children’s Museum has announced a deal with Procter & Gamble declaring “Swiffer Dusters” to be the official cleaning product of the museum. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has, in the past, struck similar …