Financial Stability

Closing the GAAP on Direct Care

By Lori Breslauer and Sarah Ebel

As lawyers with backgrounds in horticulture (Lori) and material culture studies (Sarah), we never thought we would be passionate about an accounting rule. Yet here we are. In 2015 we wrote a white paper suggesting a revision to an …
When Dual Leadership Works, 1+1=3

By Jill Stilwell

What is dual leadership and how does it work? Recently, over coffee, I asked these questions of Cheryl Donaldson Moses and Donna Jared, the Co-Executive Directors of the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery (FCMoD). They shared their thoughts …
Is It Time to Break Your Museum’s Organizational Mold?

By Mark Sundlov

Over the course of the twentieth century, and into today, museums have witnessed dramatic changes in their organizational and funding environments—some driven from within the museum field, others from outside of the field. It’s clear that …
If You Build It: Fundraising success will come to small museums that implement a set of best practices.

By Karen L. Daly

If I had a dollar for every time a well-intentioned board member, volunteer, or staff member suggested one of the above fundraising tips, my organization would have a Harvard-like endowment and run a healthy surplus each year! Alas, in my …
Exploring the Explosion of Museum AI

By Elizabeth Merritt

Here are five good reasons you should join me in Miami Nov 1-2 to explore how museums can use artificial intelligence to fuel their work (illustrated by recent news): AI can help users in and out of the museum explore collections in new …
FASB’s Proposed Changes to the Design of Nonprofit Financial Statements and What it May Mean to Your Museum

By By Multiple Authors

After nearly 20 years of living with the current not-for-profit reporting model, users of financial statements of nonprofit organizations in many cases still do not have a true understanding of an organization’s financial position and …
Your Museum Needs Money—Now What?

By Charlotte A. Montgomery

Finding and securing funding opportunities for your museum can help advance not only your museum’s goals, but your personal ones as well. It can be a daunting task and many give up or take a defeatist attitude saying, for example: “No one …
Alt Funding

By Elizabeth Merritt

“Will museum collections stay ‘inside the walls’ while fundraising moves to mobile phones, or is there some way that creative museum folks can move both their collections and their communities of supporters onto mobile platforms?” Lucy …
Fighting for Philanthropy

By Sue Hoye

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2012 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. Imagine a group of children settling in for a sleepover in a history museum. Clad in their pajamas, the kids are just about to …
Why Is the Form 990 So Important?

By Marsha Shaines

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2011 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. The revised Form 990 is much more than a tax document—it’s your museum’s annual autobiography. Because the Form 990 is readily …