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

Measuring Social Impact for Financial Sustainability

This is a recorded session from the 2020 AAM Virtual Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo. This session will unpack one museum’s journey to articulate and measure their social impact. Participants will analyze and discuss the implications …

#AAM2021 Elevate Stage Session: Resilient Together, Philanthropy in Museums

Confronted with the global pandemic, individual and institutional philanthropy has been responsive, engaged, and nimble. What role can philanthropy play in helping museums to recover and become more resilient? Do funders still view museums …

From Preservation to Participation: The Journey of Sandy Spring Museum

Many museums think that serving the needs of more ethnically diverse constituents will lose them “traditional” audience and supporters, but at Sandy Spring Museum (SSM), we’ve found just the opposite. Nearly ten years ago, when a financial …

What’s the Connection Between Financial Capital and Museum Education?  

In this series of posts, EdCom’s Trends Committee is taking a deeper look at emerging phenomena identified in the 2020 edition of TrendsWatch from the Center for the Future of Museums. In this post, they dive into financial capital, with a …

Online and the Bottom Line

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of Museum magazine, a benefit of AAM membership. The California Academy of Sciences focused on digital fundraising in the age of COVID-19.  The pandemic’s impact on the museum …

Forecasting the Future of Financial Sustainability Webinar

As museums navigate the financial crisis precipitated by COVID-19, leaders need to craft short-term strategies for survival, as well as long-term strategies succeeding in the post-COVID world. This recorded webinar reviews trends and …

Monthly Subscriptions Make Membership Easy to Say Yes To

As cultural organizations continue to face declining membership and significant lost revenue during the pandemic, many are seeking ways to engage new audiences and retain existing members. Luckily, while the long-term impact of the crisis …

Running with Scissors (and a Mask!): COVID-19 Responses at Old Salem Museums & Gardens

Just as flexible buildings can withstand hurricane-force winds and earthquakes, flexible institutions can withstand monumental challenges like a global pandemic. Because of our four years of re-envisioning at Old Salem Museum & Gardens …

The Top Ten Alliance Blog Posts of 2020

If 2019 was a “whirlwind year,” 2020 was a full-blown tornado. Forces that had been gathering speed in the museum field—like growing emphases on digital content and diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion—came to a dramatic head …

Latest Stories from AAM

Civics on View: Using Museum Collections to Foster Greater Civic Knowledge and Understanding

At a time when much of the nation is thinking about what citizenship means, museums, …

The Formula for Relevance

Category: Center for the Future of Museums Blog
I love finding examples of museums that use their resources to boost the fortunes of …

Museum Ethics in a New Gilded Age

Category: Center for the Future of Museums Blog
Readers of this blog may remember Erik Ledbetter, who served as the Director of …

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