financial sustainability – Page 2 – American Alliance of Museums

Sharing the Webinar Recording: Creating Sustainable Financial Models for Research Collections

By Elizabeth Merritt

Last month, Jill Parsons at the Ecological Society of America and Judy Gradwohl of the San Diego Natural History Museum joined me online to explore how museums can build income streams around their collections and win hearts and minds in …
Museum Pricing for Affordability and Profit

By Elizabeth Merritt

What does it cost to buy an airline ticket, book a rideshare service, or make a hotel reservation? Nowadays the answer to that question may vary minute-to-minute, as companies use data analysis and clever algorithms to calibrate their …
Sustainable Investing Part 3: Case Study of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

By Richard V. Piacentini

In parts one and two of this series, Anna Raginskaya introduced readers to sustainable investing, discussed its relevance to museums, and provided some practical advice for organizations interested in adopting the practice. In the third …
Teaching the World to Value Collections (while making some $$)

By Elizabeth Merritt

I hope you will join me later this month for a webinar exploring how museums can build income streams around their collections and win hearts and minds in the process. While the session is formally pitched at natural history research …
Sustainable Investing: A Practical Guide for Museums – Part 2

By Anna Raginskaya

This is the second of a three-part series on sustainable investing. In part one, Anna Raginskaya, Financial Advisor, Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley reviewed the concept of sustainable investing and presented several reasons why museums …
Sustainable Investing: A Practical Guide for Museums – Part 1

By Anna Raginskaya

Earlier this year a guest post on this blog advocated for museums harnessing their endowments to mission-related goals through a financial practice known as impact investing. In today’s post, Anna Raginskaya, Financial Advisor, Blue Rider …
When a Private Museum Has Massive Public Support

By Alexandra Nicholis Coon

Even before the 2008 financial collapse only 56 percent of museums received support from local government, and that funding made up about 10 percent of their overall operating budget. The most recent financial analysis by Grantmakers in …
From For-Profit to Nonprofit: Evolution of the International Spy Museum

By Elizabeth Merritt

Next up in my exploration of museum business models, a conversation with Tamara Christian, president of the International Spy Museum. The Spy Museum is the first museum I’ve found that has operated as both a for-profit and a nonprofit …
Two Scoops: The Museum of Ice Cream

By Elizabeth Merritt

A recent discussion thread on Museum Junction debated whether the Museum of Ice Cream really counts as a museum. I’m interested in why they choose to self-identify as a museum, and what value that has contributed to their brand. …
Doing More with More: Investing in Earned Income

By Judy Gradwohl

As the saying goes, “it takes money to make money.” Often museums feel they can’t risk their slim financial margin on speculative ventures, but not taking such risks comes with a cost as well—the cost of lost opportunities. In today’s …