 Alright, great. And welcome to everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's webinar. This is, of course, the sixth in our eight-part series to complement your in-person training for the Miami Heritage Response Team. These programs are made possible through the generous grant funding support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Today we will pivot from our past discussion of material-specific salvage techniques towards a broader topic and one that is essential to all response and recovery efforts. Fundraising. Next week we will also discuss a broad yet essential topic, health and safety. Again, a reminder that if you have missed any of these live programs, please make sure that you watch a recording of the missed session. You should have completed watching all eight programs by Monday, October 16th, which is when we'll begin our final in-person training. Before we begin the presentation, just a quick refresher of technical notes on your screen. You'll see several boxes, including one labeled chat on the left-hand side. You can use the chat box to say hello, ask questions, share any information or links. And if you post a question in the chat box, you'll receive a reply from me. Any questions will be noted and collected and I'll verbally ask them of Susan, although Susan is a very experienced webinar giver, so she might be able to catch those live and respond as well. With that, I'm very pleased to introduce you all to our presenter, Susan Matheson. Susan has worked in museums for 35 years as a conservator, administrator, and fundraiser. She has held conservation positions at the Morgan Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Gallery of Art as well as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She was also the administrative conservator at the Conservation Center of New York University, where in addition to being the department's development officer, she served on the adjunct faculty and as a textile conservation consultant at Vila Le Piedra in Florence. Development positions include those at the National Academy Museum, the American Academy in Rome, and the Friends at the American Museum in Britain. In 2007, she started SAM Fundraising Solutions, a firm specializing in fundraising for historic preservation and art conservation. She helps museums, historic houses, and grassroots organizations meet their fundraising and strategic planning goals, and she presents workshops on a variety of fundraising topics. She also works with European organizations seeking to develop American patrons programs. Susan has published and presented extensively on topics ranging from textile conservation, cooperation, and fundraising. She is a master of arts and museum studies in textile conservation from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a certificate in fundraising from New York University. She has served on a variety of boards and committees including the Collection Committee of King Manor Museum, Historic House Museum in Jamaica, Queens, and the Board of the Historic Districts Council of New York City's only advocacy group for historic neighborhoods. With that, I'm pleased to turn things over to Susan for her presentation on fundraising for disaster scenarios. Hello everybody and I'm sure hope you can all hear me. Thanks so much for tuning in and let's get started. So you've had a disaster and while you're dealing with your damage structure or your waterlog collections, you also need to think about how you're going to pay for it all. So initially, I thought I would kind of step back and look at the several funders that you look into at the time of the emergency, you know, and besides your insurance company, which is probably going to be one of your first phone calls, there are other local disaster recovery options such as those through your state and local government agencies. And there are sites like FloridaDisaster.org and the National Heritage Responders and other programs through FAIC. The National Trust for Historic Preservation also gives emergency grants that range from about a thousand to five thousand to basically bring consultants in to assess what work needs to be done. And this is what you will need initially when that all happens. And then there's the federal grants, the ones we all really kind of know, the disasterassistance.org, which is one site, grants.gov is one you may already know from doing NEA, NEH, and other federal grants. And then there's FEMA. And rather than spending our time going through the maze that is a FEMA application process, I decided instead to contact a cousin, believe it or not, who did a lot of the FEMA applications right after Hurricane Sandy out on Long Island. And I wanted to get sort of his tips on what you can do if you're going in to FEMA. And he said that completing the application is the easiest part and it's really the burden of proof that's going to be much more difficult for you to produce after you're a disaster. So you need to make sure your documents are backed up and readily available because that's what you're going to need to back up your claim. It's not just the application. Store your documents and everything off site or in the cloud again so you can get to them relatively easier. And in regard to those documents, think about things like your tax returns. Make sure they're up to date because no government agency is going to want to talk to you if you owe them money. And you may say, oh, well, that's fine. We're all good in all of that. I actually have one small group I've worked with where it was a case of one person thought the other person thought the other person and everybody else was doing their tax returns. Turns out they didn't. And they didn't do it for three years, which means they lost their tax status. So it's just kind of good to double check. Look at your financial statements as well. He said understated income and expense line items can also result in delays. Make sure you have an accurate schedule of your assets, especially the fixed ones. Your collection value. Make sure it's supported by recent appraisals and have that conversation with your insurance broker before the disaster. Because some objects in your collection may need separate schedules because they're not covered under your standard insurance policy. Keep in mind photographs are not generally desirable proof of ownership or value, so you're going to need more than that. Sorry, I have allergies. Know your geography and the risks that come with it. Plan your contingencies around those risks. And what he said was really most important was that when you're engaged in a grant claim, just give the granting agency exactly what they want. Avoid traps like trying to be smarter and giving them more information. Bureaucrats don't think like that. Just give them what they ask for. If they need more information or want more information, they will come back to you and ask and trust me, they will. So now what I've just outlined here is responsive fundraising. There's a problem. You've had an emergency and you're seeking funds in reaction to that problem. But once you're past that initial recovery, you need to start thinking about how you're going to raise funds beyond that emergency funding. It's not going to cover everything. So that's what we're going to discuss today. And I'm not going to give you a list of funders. What this is about is really how to work with those you have and how you can find new ones. There are no magic lists of funders. Sorry. I get asked for it all the time and there really isn't. But what we want you to do, what I want you to understand is how to fundraise strategically. You're creating a plan of action to fund your disaster recovery. You're going to think strategically about who you're approaching, how you're going to ask for and what you're going to ask for and what. And you also, and sorry if you heard that in the background, it's my dog snoring. Sorry. I'm trying to want to help you to understand about how you can be more creative about how you're solving the problems that arose as a result of the disaster. So what we're going to do is a quick fundraising primer. Brief fundraising 101. Give you a few pointers along the way to help you think about looking in different places for funders. Helpful hints, sort of tips and tools, again to kind of give you ideas about how to go about looking for funders. Research tools to help you with your prospect research. And then we'll end with a few case studies so you can see how, you know, part the fundraising 101 and all the things we talked about are actually put into practice. So the first thing is where does the money come from? And we have four main sources, individuals, corporations, foundations and government agencies. Now yes, individuals, and that's where we're going to start, may be dealing with their own recovery, but remember we're beyond the immediate post disaster now. So why would you go to them? Well, 75% of charitable giving is from individuals and that's because they have no restrictions. They can give how much they want, what they want, how it can be used for, how it can be paid back. They don't have the tax status rules and the guidelines and all of that that a foundation, a corporation or government agency has. And why do they give? Because they're interested in your organization mission and values. They're interested in your programs and they want to make a difference in your organization because of that. And that's key when you're doing disaster funding because you want to show them how, even if they're giving you a hundred bucks, how that's going to be make a difference in your organization. So where do you find them? I always start with the ones you already have a relationship with. And if you really start looking, you have a wealth of prospects. They're the people using your services, they're coming to your programs and all of that. So your current donors, who can you get interested in your recovery? And don't just look at the big guns. I am more interested in a donor that gives me $250 a year than I am by the one who comes to a benefit once and buys a $10,000 table. That $250 donor is loyal. They support you. They're engaged. And if you look into them a little bit and if they are consistent, you might find a nice surprise that they actually could be giving more. And the only reason why they have it is they haven't been asked because possibly you assume that they can. And I give a perfect example of this one client of mine. It's an alumni organization and I noticed one of their donors just started giving. She was being really, really consistent. But in total over the last five years, she'd maybe only given about $300. Turns out when I did a little digging, this woman was worth a billion dollars. So you might have some surprises in there. Your lapsed donors, they're the ones you already have a connection with too. They've just fallen by the wayside. Well, now you have a unique situation. Use that to bring them back into the fold. Your volunteers view their financial contributions as an extension of their commitment. And they can help you find new donors. You're bored. And I hear the groans now. But now more than ever in a disaster situation, they must be engaged in the process. I often say fundraising is a team sport. It's a partnership between the staff and the board, not the responsibility of one of the others. And if they're nervous about soliciting gifts, then find other ways to involve them. They can be ambassadors who help you cultivate those donors. They can be help you stew with them, sending thank you notes, making thank you calls, just meeting for coffee with no ask. And they can attend those major gift meetings. They don't have to ask, but they do need to be there. So once you kind of looked within, then you now start to look out and expand your pool. And I always say that those who get to similar organizations is a great way to start because people concentrate their giving. They're going to support more than one organization with the same mission. And the best way to do it is collaboration. You know, you're in the same boat as your fellow nonprofits in the area. So why not work together to engage donors? You have an unusable site because of the hurricane, theirs is usable. So have a joint event together. Is this stealing? No, because evidence shows that collaboration results in gains on both sides. Foundations want to see this, especially when they're supporting two grantees with one grant. Corporations, they get double the bang for the publicity that they're supporting too. So it really does benefit both organizations. And then look a little beyond the obvious. Those whose interests align with the work you do. Who funds the subjects or the materials in your collection? Wouldn't they be interested in saving it? Who is interested in local history, geology, particular species, or environmental conservation area? You know, you're not looking for someone interested in disaster recovery per se, but someone interested in the broader context of the disaster recovery. In other words, they're interested in what it is you're recovering. So use that to attract the donors. Okay, now that you've got your list of the donors, you need to do the research. And just really quickly, you know, look at where they have given because it shows what they're interested in, how they give, you know, do they want to give, do endow things? Do they do annual gifts? Do they want their names on things? What's their average gift size? How is that, how involved are they? Do they want to be on boards or visiting committees? Where do they work? You know, how is that business doing? You know, talk to your board, talk to your staff, talk to the, you know, volunteers who may know them that can provide insight and also talk to the prospect. Finding out, find out their fill-in-profit priorities as you engage them. Now the research tools are, you know, some of the obvious ones that we all know, the annual reports, gift lists, and the backs of programs and that sort of thing. Exhibition donor walls. Hoover's online and the other business sites like Bloomberg and Edgars gives you insight into the businesses that they may be in. Zillow and Trulia, if you know where they live, you can find out their house value and if, you know, they live in a very expensive house then they might be able to fund something big. Net worth sites, not all of these are celebrity driven. And then if you have Razor's Edge, BlackBaud has a subset of that called research point. That's a database that you feed your Razor's Edge database into that and it comes up with a lot of financial information about your donors. Donor search works the same way. They're both subscription based. Okay, so you've done the research, you found the donors, then you got to talk about cultivation and there's so much out there, I don't want to concentrate on it now, but I do want to say keep in mind that disasters give you a new opportunities for cultivation. You can do hard hat tours, you can have them participate in panels. You know, museum re-envisioning town halls, all of that they can participate in. Now how do you ask them for money? For the smaller donations it's obvious, you know, appeals targeted donations adopt a campaign. But the one thing you have to really watch out for is donor fatigue. And regard to that, you know, you have to kind of remember you're going to be raising money for a long time after that disaster. One client who's one of the case studies has been doing it for seven years and they're nowhere near done. So you have to really think about that. So be creative. You know, people get bored with the same promotions or the same solicitations. So mix it up and think of new ways to do so. Be different from everybody else. Everyone else is looking for disaster recovery money. Refrain your so it's not the same appeal they're getting from everybody else. Use the visuals. Show the same need. Don't be afraid to show less than ideal conditions. Show your accomplishments, but you're making progress. And don't think on a large scale, 100 million books, 100 million documents. Donors can't wrap their heads around that, nor do they think their $100 donation is going to make much difference if they're, you're thinking that big. Tone it down to one book, one document, one object, one animal. And make your campaign around that. The donor will then feel that their $100 can actually make a difference. And then of course there's the obvious, you know, naming opportunities. We all know about those. Now I just wanted to stop for a minute and regard to this and look at crowdfunding because odds are you're going to do a crowdfunding campaign if you're in a disaster. And a few thoughts on this. There's a multitude of platforms out there and everything. You can find the best ones for you. I usually use Indiegogo just because it's nonprofit friendly. But really what a successful crowdfunding campaign does is it requires strategy and setting realistic goals. You're not going to set up a campaign and raise your goal in three days and have a double your donor base. Not going to happen. What crowdfunding campaigns are about are supporting your donors. I mean, sorry, is helping you empower your current supporters. And I'm talking here about your Facebook friends, your Twitter followers, those who do whatever it is you do on Instagram and Snapchat. They're those that don't necessarily give you money, but they're still stakeholders, regardless. And they're the ones who are going to help you find donors. So you need to empower them to do so. Make it easy for them. Send them e-blasts, Facebook postings, you name it, that they can easily forward and do it weekly during the campaign. And make sure you encourage them to forward that blast and encourage their friends to give. So this seems like a lot, but if you plan accordingly, you won't be. Fundraising success on these is not made during the campaign itself. It's done before. Have everything ready to go. Your blasts, your ask, your Facebook status updates, your tweets, the whole thing. So that when the campaign goes, all you're doing is hitting the send button or the update button. That said, now we go on to major guests. And I just wanted to touch on this bracelet because there will be people you'll be asking for millions of dollars. Let's face it. And the best means of solicitation for these guests is face-to-face. So when you're having that meeting, go in with a game plan. It's going to be your ED, your board members, whoever. Make sure everybody is telling the same story, asking about the same project and is agreed on the amount. And more importantly, make sure the right person is asking. When it comes to how much, don't sell your shelves short. Ask for what your research shows you the donor is capable of giving. Stay asking for less. Won't make a donor say yes. And not only that, people know what things cost. So if you log all the project, they're going to be like, well, you're not going to, I'm not, you know, my money's not going to really do anything. You know, I know a new roof costs $500,000. You asking me for $25,000, it's not going to work. Now, once you've gone in, you know, very light and breezy, you know, established rapport at the beginning, describe your project, do your pitch, ask them for the gift, and then step back and listen. Let the donor talk. You listen for issues of concern, answer questions, hear what they have to say, and be positive, even if they say no, and use that no response to keep the conversation going. Ask them why. And it might be a situation of not now. They can't do it now. Well, then turn around and say, well, okay, can I get in touch with you six months a year from now so we can discuss this again? Or maybe that, you know, not the project you pitched. Well, okay, you know, we had this other thing in the works. Let me, you know, when we're ready, can I tell you about it and see if maybe that might be of interest to you? And if they want to think about it, you know, set a date for the answers, like, great, you know, can I call you next Wednesday to see what you thought? And if you're afraid to ask, rehearse it beforehand and realize too that you don't need to convince them. You've done the research, you've done the cultivation. They know why they're at that meeting. So, you know, they know your good work and everything. So it's really in many ways a formality. And don't feel, you know, don't take that no as a personal rejection. It's not you, it's the project or the organization that they're saying no to. So corporations is another, you know, again, everyone's going to be going to the same companies or the companies themselves are in their own recovery. But, you know, they may still want to put on a good face in the community. So why do they give? There's, you know, positive image in the community. It's good for business. We know all of it. So use that to your advantage in terms of going into a business. You know, how do they give? They give outright matching gifts, which is basically cash for a bono equipment or services, you know, you need a backhoe, construction company may be able to lend you one. You know, facilities use place for workshops or board meetings or re-envisioning discussions, that sort of thing. In-kind gifts, computer equipment offers supplies, provide room for benefit and sponsorship, sort of usual typical things. And similarly with, as with individuals, you need to research your corporations as well. And, you know, professional uses, SEC filings will help you determine how much they can, you know, give what how their business is doing. Websites, again, such as Edgar's and Hoover's can also provide this information. There's a may have a corporate foundation, or usually it's on their company website under community. And even if there is no foundation, this is often where programs and initiatives that the corporation has made possible will be listed. And then there's, you know, the smaller ones in your community. The Chamber of Commerce, your local CDCs, can help you find information about that. Now, the helpful hints for corporations is, don't forget the little guy. Often when one thinks of these, they often think, you know, the American Express, the Microsoft, the Goldman. And my response is like, yeah, you can go to them, but you'll probably get buckets. You know, unless you're, you know, a multi-million dollar organization, they're really not going to know you. But the little guy, you know, the pharmacy down the street has much more to gain from supporting your project in terms of publicity and community goodwill. And he therefore will probably be much more approachable. When you're going to a foundation, sorry, approach it as you with a business mindset, because that's the way they think. And, you know, in the past, it used to be just about the name on the wall. When the market tanked, that, that all changed. And we don't really know what the other wants anymore. So take a leadership role and then in the quote unquote negotiations, because that's what it is. Ask what their goals are, express what yours are, and then find the areas of alignment and build from there. So in other words, really look at with what you can't offer. You can't offer a client dinner in your historic dining room. And once you kind of have that, you know, the limitations, they can be put aside, and then the other options can be put on the table negotiating. So in other words, you can have dinner in the dining room, but you can't have a cocktail party out in the garden. So that's sort of that back and forth thing that goes on with dealing with corporations. Foundations. In the time of disaster, many will step up. So contact those you have existing relationships with to see if they can provide emergency support. And the Henry Lewis Foundation did a lot of this after the market tanked, and they ceased giving, cease taking on any new grantees and just provide a general operating support to their existing ones. So they do have it. Now where do you find them? Again, the research tools. The most obvious is the Foundation Directory online, which is subscription, but they have introduced, I think it was about three years, two or three years ago, Foundation Directory, or FDO Free. And you can get some basic information about 90,000 foundations through that site. There's also the foundation's websites, and more and more of them are having those. Even the smaller family ones. And that's where you can get everything from how much money they give to what the application procedures are and the deadlines and all that fun stuff. If they don't have a website like some of the smaller family foundations, the 4990, their tax filing, is the best way to get some information. And the foundation centers, that same website on the slide, if you look under resources, you'll see they have a 990 finder. And that's the easiest way to just kind of pop in and look up whoever it is you're looking up. Again, same loads of wealth of information on there about who they've given to and how much and all of that. Government agencies, there really isn't much to do, because everything is clearly stated in their guidelines. You know, the programs, the types of projects they fund or don't fund, the application requirements, reporting procedures. And this is where going back to federal and even to some states as well, make sure that your state or federal online vendor system information is up to date and hasn't expired. With federal, you have to register as a vendor through SAM.gov and then you have to register through grants.gov. If that's not up to date, you're not going to be able to go to FEMA. Similarly with the Florida state ones, it exists. I know we have it in New York and others, so make sure that's all good to go, because it'll make your life a lot easier, particularly right after that disaster when you have to start trying to pull and get money in as quickly as you can. And even with regard to government, don't think about just the federal. You know, your State Historic Preservation Office, your State Archives and Libraries, your Department of Ed, the Parks Department, Councils for the Arts and Humanities, Science Foundations, County or Town Arts Councils are all potential funders as well. So there's a lot of government support out there. Okay. Now that you've figured out who your all your donors are, how are you going to communicate that emergency to them? And I always start with using stories. The most successful way of communicating info to a funder is through a story. People react more positively to it. It elicits an emotional response. And remember, when people are emotional, that's when they tend to give. But also too, a story helps you get beyond the hard data. It helps folks understand what it is that's going on and the issues regarding your collection or building or whatever that's been hit by this disaster. Again, it goes back to that make it about one book or one document or whatever. And talk about the story of what happened to that artifact as it went through the disaster. Need, you're going to have to make a case for need. And while it seems obvious, you know, our building fell apart. This isn't about financial need. It's about justifying the need for your recovery work. So you know, what are the problems? How are you going to solve it? You know, and, and this kind of ties in a way into demonstrating impact. You need to articulate yours and the recovery's value to the community. You know, why is your disaster recovery necessary and needed and good for the community? It's not just about doing the good work within the museum. You need to show that you're an integral part of that community and you're contributing to it and you're helping to solve its problems. And therefore, your recovery is necessary so you can keep doing your good work. You know, positive changes beyond the walls. And then you need to think too in terms of an evaluation. You know, it used to be how do we, you know, how do we come, how do we do accomplishing our goals? Now it's about what's changed as a result of our work. It's the external results that matter. Again, it goes back to all of that is what changes or improvement in the knowledge skills, attitudes, behavior of the people we serve. You know, what methodology did you use to determine that? How do you quantify or qualify that? And if this all sounds confusing, I highly recommend the IMLS has on their website a sort of little mini course or called shaping outcomes. And it really walks you through the sort of how do you evaluate what your audiences are getting out of your programs in terms of quantifying it and qualifying it and all these changes and improvements in behavior and attitude and everything. So I highly recommend it. This sounds confusing and odd, taking a look at that. Now, let's see how all of this works in practice. And I'm going to do three case studies now. And they're not going to be each be about sort of what appear to be typical disasters because not all of them are. And this case is the Friends of Kinect Quad. And it's a disaster of a different sort, one that reached way beyond what actually happened. And just give me one moment, folks. I seem to have lost a page in my speech. That's okay. I can wait. Anyway, okay. The Friends of Kinect Quad is a New York State Parks Friends group. And they're dedicated to the preservation, conservation of the park land. And they do this through the restoration of buildings. And you could see one on the left. I'll reference that a little later. And through it offering educational programs and that sort of thing. And the reason why the park is so special is because it was a, I'm sorry, I'm losing my thing for a minute here. Hold on one minute. I just, let me find this because I want to get, sorry, I present this to you correctly. Am I back? Okay, great. I'm back. Sorry. Technical difficulty. Anyway, so I'm not sure where you lost me, but let me just go back really quickly. So we have a Friends group for a New York State Park. They started out on Long Island. And the thing about the park besides being its colonial roots in the 19th century, it was deeded to the South Side Sportsmen's Club of Long Island. Now, this may be like, okay, fine. But members of the club included the Vanderbilt, the Roosevelt, the Carnegie's, a ton of Gilded Age notables in New York at the time. We had presidents going there to fish. It was the premier fishing location in the area. So presidents, people like Tiffany went and there's a club, a Tiffany window in the clubhouse, all of that. So it has this really huge Gilded Age South Shore Gold Coast history. And it's still a premier trout fishing site. But on top of all of this, in addition to their clubhouse and other buildings, it also has the oldest hatch house in New York State and the country, which opened in 1884. And this is the project I want to talk about. The hatch house had been opened continuously until 2009 when the Department of Environmental Conservation denied the New York State Parks Department renewal for their operation permit for the hatchery. And this was due to the detection of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus, otherwise known as IPN, a pathogen detrimental to juvenile trout but not humans. And this is how you learn a lot doing fundraising. I know more about infectious pancreatic necrosis than anybody ever needs to. Anyway, getting back to that. So seeing the urgency of the situation because at that time New York State was having financial difficulties, the friends took on the revitalization of the hatchery. And because I know I have a couple of aquariums, just to give you a sense of what they did, the friends worked with the state and the Freshwater Institute and took, undertook measures to clean the facilities of the IPN and that included precautions to prevent it going relapsing through the use of well water rather than river water. That's ensuring that another outbreak could be contained in non-infected Long Island waters. Now that it's clean, the friends are forging ahead with plans to improve the hatchery's environmental impact and use it as an educational resource. That includes constructing a new visitor center and education exhibit. So as I said, this is a disaster of a different source. So what did they do? Basically, a disaster of a different source whose impact reached far beyond the institution because it actually had a devastating impact on the local community. Paid entry for fishermen was down 90% and the number of visitors was down by 30. Fishing groups weren't coming to the park anymore because there was no fish. The denial of the permits caused the cancellation of numerous events and curtail the use of the preserve by educational outlets. The closure made it impossible for the preserve to participate in the governor's initiative to expand fishing clinics. The losses and fees for fishing were about $300,000 a year and plus another $100,000 per year annually in class registration and parking fees. So you're talking about a loss of close to half a million every year. Similarly, it was a huge detriment to the economy and the revenue of Suffolk County in New York State because of the losses in sales tax revenue when local businesses such as hotels and restaurants and fishing and sporting shops saw a reduction in patronage because the hatchery was closed and there was no fish. The park wasn't serving handicapped anglers as well because you know and Connecticut is one of the few handicapped accessible fishing sites in the state. And then lastly, the lack of fish disrupted the normal cycle of the Kinequat River because you had wildlife like the migrating and nesting birds that didn't have fish to feed on. So therefore the fundraising for this work was not focused on the importance of the hatchery as a historic site but on the economic and environmental impact of the hatchery closure to both the preserve and community. So because of this and because we were able to broaden the scope of funders we approached so in addition to local government agencies after all this had county-wide impact so we could easily go to them we were able to look at economic development while and wildlife conservation funders as well as local business foundations and added those to the pool of existing members and angler environmental groups. So how is this presented? What was the story we told? Well we know the usual you know cultural and historic tourism you know for every tourism dollar spend generates 51 dollar 51 dollar return in the private sector. I mean cultural tourists been more than other tourists cultural attracts events attract new dollars and retain local dollars and then there's the job creation you know how many full-time equivalent jobs were you adding really adding to the community because of the hatchery you know indirectly through local businesses and all of that people were being hired because there were so many anglers coming to park and then you know there were other you know sort of more direct economic benefits you know the park and the fence became a source of revenue and spending because they were hiring people who had were given salaries who could spend it. You had new businesses moving into the community because of the because of the preserves so you have real estate purchase and rental fees going in you know professionals being hired contractors and all that sort of stuff purchase power they you know buying supplies and you know all that sort of thing and basic tax revenues so those were sort of all the direct benefits of the hatchery project and then there was the indirect there you know dynamic recreational resources attract individuals and businesses to the communities they improve the quality of life higher-skilled workers are attracted where there are great opportunities available and similarly businesses are attracted to communities that have high-skilled workers so it all works together so as I said suddenly this emergency this disaster of IPN wasn't just about recovering a building a collection of historic artistic or recreational resource it was about approving all the overall economic development of community it's in and that's the story we told both with the hatchery and another friends project and I've pointed out that little building that was being restored in the first slide that is a colonial grist mill the nickel grist mill and it was be it's currently being preserved it's almost done and when complete it will be a new museum that will help to attract people with different interests to the preserve bringing in new audience that love to explore long islands colonial past early technology and agricultural studies food production and even more so too to some degree the gilded age mainly because the boys as I like to call them thought the the mill was nostalgic so because both project stories were different than the usual recovery tale since 2009 when we started working together we had raised nearly a million dollars for these projects and related programs and that's not bad for an organization whose operating budget is less than thirty thousand dollars a year and for their efforts they have been given awards including one from the society for the preservation of long island antiquities and they are the friends are also now considered a role model for other new york state parks friends groups now let's go on to our next case study and I'm watching my time um otherwise known as as the show must go on which is very appropriate because this is the barna museum um which is located in um bridgeport connecticut and this also too has economic impact um as part of the key issue in raising funds but i'll explain all in a minute let me take a step back and tell the disaster story on june 24th 2010 an e f1 tornado formed over the city of bridgeport without warning and it pit down right in front of the museum the damage needless to say was monumental the dome that you see here twisted completely undermining the structure beneath it the windows smashed and if you might have noticed there there were three several very large plate glass windows i'll go back so you can see those plate glass windows in the front of the building they completely smashed one of those was by the air intake for the hvac system which means that all of that debris and glass and everything blew out into the galleries so you can kind of see it in the image here the little bits of glass and what have you it doesn't really images can't convey it because i went in the galleries a few days later and it was like everything sparkled because they were covered with completely pulverized powdered glass um there was a hole in the roof so birds flew in that's barry barry came to visit us for several days after the storm um the collections had you know obvious damage there was a mold there was water infiltration all that kind of stuff but in the two spirit of barnum the show must go on and that's actually the brainstorm of the you and the brainchild of the executive director of the museum who despite it all went to home depot got herself a can of red spray paint and plastered that on the side of the building and that also is testament to to the sense of humor that she and the staff and everyone had around the thing and she wanted me to say to you keeping a sense of humor is key in this situation because it's the only way you can get through it now in the days following the storm the staff thrust themselves into the crusade of you're making sure that the artifacts for thousands of them were all saved for mold dirt and hygroscopic shock and then once the artifacts were secured then they really started to look at the building and kind of to assess the scope of damage and and get an idea of what it was going to cost now once all of that was done they could have said well we've had a tornado so we're going to go dark for the duration of the recovery effort but instead they decided to see the tornado as a paradox the scary reality was a remarkable opportunity to move the museum into the 21st century and to do something really innovative and really creative it is basically figuring out what the future of the museum is going to be as part of the disaster recovery and that became the story of the fundraising it wasn't the damage but the future of this important institution within the community and that is a major effort to remain vital in the community we engage the membership of audience the museum opened on a limited basis in April of 2012 about two years after the storm opened up in an adjacent undamaged space they had a small exhibition called recovery and action that enabled members sponsored and guests to view the activities of the museum during this unusual time and it gave them a rare behind the scenes view of the complexity of disaster recovery of you know of a major institution and collection there was a looping powerpoint showing the damage of the building because you couldn't bring anybody into the building because it wasn't safe they could maintain their school and as educational programs for children and lifelong learners either in the in the temporary space or through outreach and they continued doing things with their collection we got NEH funding to partner with the bridgeport library to do a collection digitization project now with all of this we were able to go to funders and stay that we were still a viable cultural research providing a service to the community we were engaging our donors and audience so they wouldn't forget the work us or the work that lay ahead sorry um we were able to introduce new donors to the project because we had things to show them and we were making the collection accessible even though even though it was online and more importantly because it wasn't just about disaster recovery but a revisioning of the museum we were able to go to funders for that aspect of the project to hire scholars to help us with the content to find the right exhibition designers to take all that scholarship combine it with Barnum showmanship and put it together in a seamless captivating experience we could go to agencies like the NEH for a challenge grant because they're capacity building grants and that's what we were doing um or to sustaining heritage collections and other collection-wide grants either through NEH or the IMLS and that sort of thing because we were planning and implementing sustainable preservation strategies um in recent years the messages change now and again it is that sort of re-envisioning the museum and the scholars and exhibition consultants have highlighted four themes innovation science and technology entertainment and history and entrepreneurship and the stories to be told and how they will be told are being developed and Kathy Maher who's the director of the um Barnum has a really great TED talk out there you can google it and she really talks about the multimedia experience they're planning and it's really going to change the way the visitor engages with the stories the collections the themes it's really redefining the museum experience and it sounds like it's going to be fabulous um but stepping back from all this it all sounds great but it's still critical the community to be at the center and involved in what you're doing you need to have them at the table if you want their support financial or otherwise so we had the community participating in workshops and meetings to get get their input and get them behind the recovery and what they really found out and it's harder to think is that they learned that no one really cared about the tornado is the recovery efforts had to shift to how can you know how could the museum help them whoever the them was at that moment so the important learning takeaway from that they've had thus far is that if the community doesn't think you're relevant you're not and that's what every legislator wants to know so if you're looking for that government money you've got to be relevant and you know how are you creating jobs how are you supporting the community how are you part of economic impact again it goes back to all of that and i mean sound like a little bit of a broken record but in reality this is where you know funders are going it's not about the institution anymore it's broader impact and particularly new york state grants um what used to be our bricks and mortars our historic preservation grants are now all about this and i mean our application 62 questions two of it about two are about side significance the rest is about economic impact so with that i'm going to go to our last one which is about preventing donor fatigue as i mentioned before and this is going about the merchants house museum it's truly a unique institution and if any of you have been there you know it it was built the house itself was built in 1832 and it is significant as a rare survivor from early 19th century new york city it has a nearly intact collection of the owner's original possession in a largely better displayed in a largely unaltered greek revival interior the house was purchased by seabury treadwell in 1835 and the family remained in the house until the youngest daughter died in 1933 so they have all the family's household goods it was a second cousin that took over the house after she died and that's when he decided to convert to a museum so you have an interior that's never really been touched since the 1850s and you have all their stuff so it really presents an unequaled opportunity for interpretation of the life of the mercantile family and their service in new york at that time the building's a national state city landmark and it's also one of only 115 new york city landmarks designated for both interior and exterior and it's that interior oh wait sorry i shouldn't have done that um that interior here's a nice shot of it um that is key to this um because it has in it ornamental plasterwork that many experts consider the finest extent in new york city and among the country's best so there's one of the parlor pieces and then that's a small detail let me give a nice look now in april 2012 plans were announced for a hotel in a villa adjacent to the merchant's house and that's this small garage you see right there that spot right there this caused much concern in the community because the design right there you can see um the design was deemed uncontextual in the know-how historic district construction would pose a serious threat to the house's structural stability because they might not be able to see that but they actually wanted to use the house's west wall in in their construction um you know the construction was going to pose a serious threat to its structural stability its interior elements and collections and the development had made inadequate protection provisions mandatory in light of the plan more status of major concern again was that delicate plaster because any building shift even an eighth of an inch was going to cause irreparable damage in the ensuing two years after that so until 2014 the hotel became a catalyst for community action the house government officials preservation organizations local residents all rallied to protect the house in the neighborhood sense of place a petition with over 3000 signatures was presented to community board two who voted against the hotel and although they repeatedly rejected the design height and materials and called the plans to protect merchant's house insufficient the landmarks preservation commission approved the hotel design on April 8th of 2014 and just step back for you unaware how landmarking in new york city works the house is an historic district it's a landmark so anything that happens within the district or to the house has to be approved by the commission despite the developer's assurances that all precautions to protect the house would be taken the reality is that there's nothing to writing so while the lawyers are negotiating the museum is being proactive and to conducting assessments and to predict possible damage and developing five separate protection plans to adequately protect the house now in the last three years they've been delays and new cast members in the drama but what has remained consistent is the museum's efforts to keep the disaster in the forefront of the audience's minds and thus the focus of the audience's philanthropy first the buildings and collections fragility served as the spring board for educational programming aimed at correcting the misconception a landmark is guaranteed survival you know it's immune from the time times ravages and development while educating the public about the diverse issues affecting the constant care of the historic house so we're basically saying is that landmarking does not guarantee it'll be there forever landmark handle with care the name of our program included lectures and workshops featuring noted experts who discuss topics ranging from the restoration and care of the plaster work to the bricks and mortar work that constantly takes place to ensure the house is structural stability in all programs efforts to protect the house from the impending construction next door was emphasized it's not only educated donors both current and future could be attracted donors this way but it kept them engaged in it other ways the construction was used to rally donors first oops wait sorry went the wrong way first they were called on to sign those petitions write letters give testimony as you see here or even just be in the room to demonstrate that the community wanted the house protected these activities both informed the donors of the situation and got them engaged in it all appeals at the time of the hearings and after gave members the current and current donors updates on the construction situation and as so they continue to support the cause and i'm going to give you a pretty picture of the garden here to look at new institutional funders were solicited for technical assistance grants for the architectural and collection protection plans analysis and communications because remember you have to develop a publicity plan to do all of this and legal fees we also went to new institutional funders for the the educational programs focused around the emergency and these included like the national trust local preservation organizations like the preservation league city funders our state humanity councils our state art councils and now many of these funders actually fund other programs at the museum during their tours visitors were asked for donations they made signage around the house discussing the emergency an online campaign because you have to do crowdfunding new groups were and still are being introduced to the house through collaborative events again shows how collaboration is really important their members seeing how special the house is and the severity of the threat often become new members attendees and programs and eventually donors themselves and we actually just have one a few weeks ago and everybody there already knew about what was happening and asking about it so the message is really getting out even though if you're thinking about it it's five years later from when this was first and that introduced you know despite the fight the museum continued to implement its historic restoration and furnishings plan finishing the ground floor and the repainting of the main entry and stairwell it always remained open during this work so visitors can see what was involved in preserving historic building and just what the construction would destroy the to tweak the story that the message that the museum will continue despite the threat was told through fundraising campaigns to fund the care care of specific objects and new initiatives like that sweet of furniture you saw in the front parlor and obviously benefits and annual gala served as a way to remind donors of the uniqueness of the house while ensuring they knew that the threat was still very much alive so in other words the museum continues to offer its programming yet the visitor is consistently albeit sometimes quietly reminded of the specter of the construction next door and by using different avenues to keep the member of rest of the situation the museum has presented sorry donor fatigue you know oh that construction problem again i've already given to that we don't have that um we and what we are ensured of is that the donors are still engaged in the emergency and willing to donate to the cause and actually there's gala in september is about um aim to help funding um some some of the new developments that have been happening in the case i'm not allowed to discuss it as of yet but um it will be announced then so with that i am ready for questions and thank you for listening great well thank you so much susan really have such a really incredible range of experiences in working in this that you know we all really benefited from so if anyone has any questions specific to the content that we covered here do feel free to go ahead and drop those in the chat box um one thing that really resonated with me that susan said is that um you know people tend to give emotionally in disaster scenarios and with the events that have been happening with harvey down in texas this week i'm thinking about how important it is to have your ducks in a row for when that um the passionate outpouring comes from those who want to help how useful it is to know your messaging is uh how to strike while the irons hop there to uh get that sort of involvement so exactly um any any questions any questions or is everybody overwhelmed it is it is uh it's a lot that's i know as i said at the beginning uh one that is universally important and something that i really encourage you all to be thinking about and some of this information to be bringing back to your home institutions as well just considering how you can uh structure your thinking about fundraising efforts into the broader institutional mission exactly exactly yeah it they all have to go together um and again as i said it's more and more it's not about the institution itself it's the bit that broader context in how you're fitting out in the world oh well thank you rebecca we have a few people typing right good well i hope this was helpful to everyone i seem to uh be appreciative but um yeah and again you know we really we're trying um with this group here to make sure that we're really building a community um there in the greater miami area in south florida um of folks who you know you all will be prepared after this training to be able to respond to these events and to work together uh and fundraising efforts as well oh ha ha basing in comments he he is a shorky a shih tzu yorky mix um and yes he snores a lot and he's been sick the last few days i have a dog with chronic dry eye who is on the doggy version of rostasis right such as my life i hope he wasn't too loud i can only really hear him the ones um but it was a very distinctive sound good yes it's a very distinctive sound it's very fun to hear i i have a sleep barker too at least he didn't do that i should have put a picture of him at the end of the powerpoint oh yeah gosh well oh i can share with him well again i just want to say um i just want to say thank you to you susan once again for this really wonderful presentation um so i'm really glad your experience and your words of wisdom shared with the group so um and i know that those who weren't able to join us live as well are going to enjoy this recording so oh fine and yeah thank you and thanks to everyone for listening and my website's there um my email is susan at sa mapasin.com if you any questions come up very you know if you rewatch it and think about it please just feel free to drop me a line and i'm happy to help wonderful that's so generous thank you so much and uh yes thank you to everyone who joined us here today have a good one everyone