Heather Nelson is an expert fundraiser, with over a decade of experience in the field and millions of dollars raised for important causes. In 2016 she founded Bridgeraise, a consultancy firm which helps nonprofits manage relationships with corporate partners and sponsors. We sat down to talk about the difference between fundraising in the arts and fundraising for social services, the reputation fundraising has in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sector, and how small museums can compete with the ROM.
There seems to be this disconnect between the field of fundraising, and the field of arts and culture fundraising. A lot of arts fundraisers seem to get into it from other places in the sector, from education or curation, whereas in the development world it seems like most professional development people don’t work a lot with the arts and culture sector.
Fundraising traditionally has been connected to organizations that have a social service or social justice direction, where the need is to save lives. Fundraisers are generally raising money off of a story of impact on the individual or on society, and I don’t think arts organizations have done particularly well at positioning themselves in that place.
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| A lot of fundraising activities are actually just relationship-building. (Image source.) |
One of the tough things about fundraising in the arts is the “ask,” because art isn’t strictly a requirement for survival and therefore attracts fewer donations. It’s so much easier to say, “We need X amount of money to buy a CAT scan to help a sick child,” versus, “We need X amount of money to buy this really cool painting.”
Arts organizations have a history of having another way [of supporting themselves]. Entry fees and government have always been the way they pay for themselves, and maybe a few corporate sponsors. They’re selling a product [access to art and history], either to corporate sponsors or to individuals. You don’t need fundraisers for that. A fundraiser’s skills are in telling the story of the gap, the cause, the need. If your financial model doesn’t require that, then why would you hire someone whose skill it is? But now the government isn’t covering costs, and there is a need for the skills of a professional fundraiser. That’s not where the arts community has built up a lot of people.
What do you think are the key things non-fundraising fundraisers, people in arts organizations who are in a semi-fundraising role but don’t have the training or that skill set, need to be learning?
One of the things you need to do is think about what your money story is. You’re going to be talking about money, and you need to think that through. Are you uncomfortable asking for money? Do you not like saying "money" out loud? Do you not like even talking to your family about money? You need to work through that. The second thing I’d say is focus on the fact that most of fundraising is relationship building. Forget about the money for a while. Now that you’ve thought it through, put it aside and spend your energy building relationships. That is the core of fundraising. At some point you will have to ask for money, but you can spend quite a bit of time bringing [people] closer to your organization and not thinking about the fundraising part at all. Third is keep it simple. One of the things that sometimes happens is you don’t want to ask for money so you build this elaborate event or activity, and all this time is spent on creating materials to put as many layers of buffer between you and the actual asking of the money. Really what that does is just suck tons of time and money that is not actually raising more for the organization. At the end of the day, it really is a waste of money. You don’t need ambitious galas or fancy decks and proposals and all kinds of things to raise money. Put less there, keep that simple, and put more energy into getting to know people.
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| Working with databases and spreadsheets is another major component of fundraising. (Image source.) |
I see people in my faculty often not thinking about fundraising, whereas I take the position that everyone in a museum is involved in fundraising. I see people not realizing it’s going to be a major part of their professional lives. Educators give tours, and curators create exhibitions that bring in potential new donors. Everyone is connected to it.
And they’re connected to it because it pays their salaries. If your fundraiser isn’t effective, you lose your job. A good organization has everyone working together, and those other players have to understand how big a part they are in this fundraising ecosystem.
And most people don’t realize that most fundraising isn’t chatting up billionaires. Most fundraising is annual giving, memberships, and so forth.
That isn’t the bulk of what is publicized, however. These big individual gifts and corporate gifts that get such big profiles are good because they provide credibility and help build trust and show what is possible. However, they sometimes set up unreasonable expectations about what is possible. All these small gifts are the engine that drives most fundraising for these big ones to pop up here and there.
It probably makes it much more intimidating for non-fundraising fundraisers, too. I imagine it’s scary to go into a role thinking that you’re expected to become best friends with the Westons.
Because I’m a corporate fundraiser, people think I introduce myself going, “Hi, can I have a million dollars?” The percentage of time I’ve spent actually asking for money is tiny. Most of the time I’m trying to figure out what the partnership looks like that I’m working on, thinking about messaging, looking at how a person is going to be thanked. Many people who are involved in the fundraising sector are never at the point where they’re asking for money. They’re building messaging, writing letters, and those things. In the fundraising sector, as a whole, only a fraction of them ask for money. It’s about more than that. The arts sector is positioned on this challenging side, where it doesn’t have a strong social need. What it does have that’s the envy of everyone else is Patron’s Circles, special events, all these things that you can get access to that others don’t have. Arts organizations have a real advantage. They have physical things, or a tangible experience they can offer. Those benefits are very valuable to the people to whom they’re very valuable. One of the mistakes is trying to sell to people who don’t care.
The vast majority of arts and culture institutions are small local heritage houses or galleries, but the majority of fundraising most people see are nationwide campaigns by the ROM and the like. If that’s all someone is familiar with when they go to work at a small institution, they’re set up to fail.
I see lots of envy. Like, “I’m not the ROM, but I’ll try to do what they do but not as well,” as opposed to saying, “This is who I am, and this is what’s awesome about who I am.” If what you’re awesome at is bringing a heritage organization to a community that has no other heritage organization, do that. Use that. Focus on what makes you special—you’re special to the community you’re in. You have special benefits you can give people, so what does that look like? Do they get special seats or a special tour? You can do all those things and they’re in your control. You don’t have to ask 2000 people like you do when you try to do something at the ROM. There are three people that work at your organization. You can get together and say, “Hey, two weeks from Friday, we’re going to have people over for coffee in the afternoon,” or, “The curator of this particular thing is going to get on a Zoom call with whoever wants to join.” And even if there are only four people that want to join, who cares? That’s four people who get to know you better, and eventually might send some money. When you’re smaller, embrace that and focus on the relationships you have access to.
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