Connecting to Funders

The final panel focused on Connecting to Funders and was moderated by Michael Conforti, Director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Janine Bowechop, Director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center, talked about her institution’s relationship with the Makah tribe and National Park Service staff and their successful funding requests for organizing and stabilizing the collection. In addition to a Save America’s Treasures grant, community donations have been key. "We believe this success is not only due to the national significance of the collection, but partly to providing the appropriate access as we do to the general public and researchers and also continuing to encourage members of our tribe to relate to the collection in a meaningful way. We have community members that regularly conduct research on the collection. We encourage that," Ms. Bowechop said.

Gregory Long, president of The New York Botanical Garden, presented his institution’s strategy: “We manage our organization so that our stakeholders, and particularly the stakeholders who can fund the organization, come to love our collections. And because they love our collections, they care about their conservation and their preservation.”

Lastly, Debra Hess Norris, Chair and Professor of the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware, explained several fund-raising strategies, including going after multiple funding sources and securing large and small grants simultaneously. She noted that "Fundraising is, of course, continuous; it’s ongoing; it’s 24/7. Follow-up, listen, involve, and collaborate. And in this case I mean listen to your donors, of course and follow-up with them, but also collaborate in a variety of ways, not just with your donors, but with other institutions working together."