 Great. Well, thank you all so much for joining us for today's webinar. This is of course the third in your eight-part series to complement your in-person training for the Texas Heritage Responders Team. These programs are made possible with a generous grant-winning support. So far, we've addressed the psychology of disasters, health and safety considerations, and today we'll be talking about fundraising. After today's program, we'll move into the next phase of our webinar series. We will address topics related to material-specific salvage strategies. Please refer to this slide. One moment. For all upcoming dates of your programs. So as a reminder, if you miss any of these sessions, I will email you following the program with a link to the webinar recording. Simply email me when you've finished viewing the program, and then I'll mark it in your file. 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. Of course, that's where you can go to say hello and ask questions and share any information or links that you'd like. If you post a question in the chat box, you'll receive a response from me. Again, showing up is Eric Porchot today. All questions will be noted, collected, and then I will verbally ask them of Susan during a break in the presentation. And 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, the National Gallery of Art, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She was also the administrative conservator at the Conservation Center, New York University, where, in addition to being the department's development officer, she served in the adjunct faculty as a textile conservation consultant at Vila de la Piatra in Florence, Italy. 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 groups meet their fundraising and strategic planning goals, and 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, collaboration, and fundraising. She is a master of arts in museum studies and 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 in Jamaica, Queens, and the Board of the Historic Districts Council, New York City's only advocacy group for historic neighborhoods. With that, it's my pleasure to turn things over to Susan for her presentation on Fundraising for Disaster Scenarios. Hello, everyone. Excuse me. Just so you know, to back up, Jess, I currently have a plow going back and forth in front of my building in New York, so you may be hearing some scraping noises in the background. So that's all it is. Anyway, welcome and thank you for tuning in. Let's get started. Jess, I think we have a first poll. Are you there? There we go. Thank you. I just want to get a rough idea of sort of size and staff. If you have a development staff, if you're a larger institution that has a whole other department, no development staff. So I can get a sense of who's out there. Look at that a few minutes. Almost there. Okay, so there's a lot of you with a large development staff. Okay, that's great to know. I see you have a large staff, but they don't help small money people. Well, what this talk, for those of you with the large development staff, what this talk will help you with is speaking their language. So that might help you in terms of getting yourself heard and communicating with your development department. So let's start from the beginning. You've had a disaster, and while you're dealing with a damaged structure or waterlogged collections, you also have to think about how you're going to pay for it all. And initially there are several funders to look at in the time of an emergency. Besides your insurance company, which is an obvious and they're not always helpful, there are sort of the local disaster recovery options, such as those through state and local government agencies. And, oh, Jess, I'm trying to do the slides and they're not moving. There we go, thank you. You know, there's the Texas Housing and Community Affairs site, which I'm sure you already know. National Heritage Responders, as we all know through AIC. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has a small grant from one to 5,000 for sites that have been damaged in the last few days or weeks by unexpected events such as, you know, fire, flood, high winds, tornadoes, hurricanes, what have you. And these grants are to bring consultants in to assist and tell you what needs to be done. And for the first time this year, some of their other funds, the Favrot and Mitchell grants, for example, are actually supporting bricks and mortar work. So that's a new thing this year. And again, they're in the, you know, $10,000 to $15,000 range, but as we all know, every little bit helps. And then of course there's the federal programs, you know, Grants.gov and FEMA. And with regard to FEMA, we're not going to spend our time going through the maze that is FEMA. But what I did was, is I contacted a cousin who, believe it or not, was doing or processing the FEMA applications after Sandy hit on Long Island. And I wanted to get his tips for helping to deal with FEMA. And again, Jeff, oh wait a minute, let me try this. Yeah, there we go. And I asked him for sort of some pointers and tips for dealing with this. And he said that, you know, the application is the easy part. And it's really the burden of proof that's the hard part for people to do after a disaster. So, you know, make sure your documents are readily accessible. That's all your financials, your insurance, statements of ownership, all of that. Make sure they're backed up, make sure they're readily available. You know, store them off site or in a cloud somewhere so you can access them. Make sure your tax documents and financial documents are accurate and up to date. And I know you're kind of saying, oh, our 990s, we're all filed up to date. But if you're one of the smaller institutions, you may think that's the case and it's not. I had one client who, you know, one thought another was doing the 990 and another and another and another. Turns out they didn't file their taxes for three years and they lost their tax exempt status. So, it's just good to double check. No, you know, again, mind to make sure that you don't have understated assets, your schedule thing. You want to make sure your insurance is covering your art or documents or whatever your collection is and that it's supported by recent appraisals. Because the, you know, there may be some items in your collection that don't fall under the auspices of a, or aren't insured enough under your general policy. So, you want to look into that. Photographs are not a proof of ownership or value, so you need to have that documentation as well. Know your geography and the potential risks that come around it like lizards or Nor'easters. And then lastly, what he couldn't stress enough was that when you're doing your claim, give the agency exactly what they ask for. Don't think you're going to be smarter and give them more. That's not how bureaucrats think. They just want what they need to know. And if they need more, they'll ask for it. So now all of this that I've just outlined is what's known as responsive fundraising. You've had a problem. You've had this emergency. You've had this disaster. And you're seeking funds into reaction to that problem. But once you're past that initial recovery, you need to start thinking about how to raise funds beyond that sort of FEMA and initial grants from the state of the city or national trust or whomever. And that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about fundraising strategically. So sort of creating that plan of action to reach your goals. Thinking strategically about whom you're approaching and how you're going to ask for them and for how much. And also thinking too in terms about how you're going to approach the disaster. Because you can be much more creative about the building fell apart when the tornado hit. What I'm not giving you today is a list of funders. What I want you is to think more about how to use the funders you have or the donors you have and how to find new ones. Because frankly, there is no list of donors or funders of these things. It's something I've asked all the time and it doesn't exist. So what I am going to do today is give you a quick fundraising 101 primer. Again, to help you be able for those with you development departments to be able to speak their language and understand and help you find a few pointers to go beyond those sort of usual suspects as I call them. There's helpful hints which are tips and tools to kind of guide you and help you in your fundraising. There's research tools to guide through prospect research. And 85% of fundraising activities and a fundraiser's time is research. So we'll keep going back to that. And then we're going to end with some case studies. So I can show somehow some of this is the fundraising 101 and the hints and the tools are all put into practice. But also so you can see different approaches to recovery and different types of disasters. Because it isn't always a flood or a fire or tornado or a hurricane. Disasters can come in many, many forms. So on that cheery note, where does the money come from? Basically there's four funding sources. Individuals, corporations, foundations and government agencies. And we're going to start with the individuals. And yes, they may be dealing with their own recovery. But remember, we're sort of beyond that post immediacy of the disaster now. We're, you know, six months, whatever, down the line. So why do you go to individuals? Well, for starters, 75% of charitable giving is from individuals. And that's because they have no restrictions. They can make their gift as big as they want, have it, go to whatever they want, pay it out how they want. Whereas your foundations, your corporation foundations, your government agencies all have grant caps or rules to maintain their tax statics and guidelines that must be followed and similarly limited resources. Why do individuals give? Because they believe in your mission and share your values. They're interested in your programs, but really what they want is to be able to make a difference in your organization. And that is key when you're doing disaster funding. So you need to sort of craft requests and things that you want to show them that even if they're only giving you $100 and you have a multi-million dollar recovery effort, that hundred bucks is still going to make a difference regardless. So let's start with identifying them. Where do you find them? And you have a wealth of prospects out there. Those are the ones you already have a relationship with. They're using your services or resources. They're visiting you regularly, going to your programs, events, doing research in your library, whatever. So look at your current donors. Who can you get interested in your recovery? And don't just look at the big donors. I am far more interested in a donor that gives me $250 a year than I am in the one that comes to a benefit once and buys a $10,000 table. That $250 donor is loyal. She's engaged and she could possibly give more, but she hasn't been asked. So don't assume just because she's only giving you $250, she can't give more. Again, it goes back to the research and I'll give you an example of a situation like this where we got hit with a really big surprise. I was working with doing an assessment, a development assessment of one client. And I noticed this one woman who was starting to come to things, starting to give a little. There was a definite pattern. She was giving consistently. But in total, she had only given about $300. I did a little deeper on this person. Turns out she was worth a billion. And the only reason why she hadn't been giving more is she hadn't been asked. And believe me, we're cultivating her now to give her to ask her to give more. Going back to the list, lapstoners. These are people that already have a connection to you. They may have fallen by the wayside, but now you have a really unique situation. So use that to bring them back into the fold and get them giving to you again. You're volunteers. They view financial contribution as an extension of their commitment. And they can also help you find and cultivate new donors, the board. And I can hear the groans now. But now more than ever, they must be engaged in the process if it's going to succeed. And I liken it fundraising to a team sport. It's a partnership between the staff and the board, not the responsibility of one or the other. And if you can educate your board and get them to realize that, you'll have a much easier chance of getting them engaged. Now, a lot of them are nervous about soliciting gifts, and that's usually part of the process. I mean, part of the problem. But find other ways to engage them in fundraising. You know, they can be ambassadors who cultivate the connections, introduce new people to the organizations. They can help you steward your donors by writing thank you letters or just taking them out for coffee and talking to them about it. And they can attend that major gift ask meeting, but they don't necessarily have to do the ask. They just need to be there because a lot of when you're talking to major donors and I'm talking high five, six, seven figure gifts, they want that peer-to-peer relationship. They don't want someone like me or your executive director to be the only person there. They want that board member, that peer-to-peer. Once you've gotten sort of looked within, then it's time to start looking outside of you. And I talk about expanding the pool to people that give to similar organizations. People concentrate their giving. So they're going to support more than one organization with a similar mission or relates to a particular interest. And I mean, that's very prevalent here in New York. There's a huge collection of Anglo-American organizations, and we all belong to everyone. You go to the events and you see the same people at every event. So there's a lot of that. And the way to do it really is collaboration. 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. They have a usable one. Why not have a joint event so you can both engage your donors and introduce your donors to each other? Is this stealing? No. Because evidence shows that collaboration results in gains on both sides. And frankly, foundations want to see this. They like to help two grantees with one grant. Or corporations like to get more bang for the buck, basically. Then also start looking beyond the obvious. Those whose interests align with the work you do. So who funds the subjects of the materials in your collections? Wouldn't they be interested in saving it? Who's interested in local history, genealogy, whatever? So you're not necessarily looking for someone who's interested in disaster recovery per se, but someone who is interested in the broader context of disaster recovery. So their interest is in what you're recovering. So use that as a way to identify donors. Research, again, it goes back to that. You've found the new donors to bring into the fold, but you need to know something about them. So you know how they want to be engaged and what is their given capacity. And really quickly, when you're researching individuals, look at where have they given. It shows what kind of projects they're interested in. How do they give to organizations? Are they endowing things? Are they giving annual gifts? Do they like their name on things? Average gift sides. It tells you right away how much you should ask them for. Only on the board or visiting committees. Do they like to be involved with the organizations they support? Where do they work? Look at their businesses. How are they doing? How is the industry that they're in doing? If it's an industry that's seeing a real uptake in terms of profits and everything, there's a good chance they have some extra money to give away. Talk to your board members and your staff and the people that know them. Those are the people who know them, who can provide interesting insight that you won't get from the web, basically. And talk to the prospect. That's the best way to find out their philanthropic properties. And to help you with all of this, there's tons of research tools out there. The ones we all tend to know are annual reports, gift lists, the exhibition and donor walls at our institutions. But there are also things like Hoogers Online and Bloomberg and Yahoo Financials that can give you a sense of what their business is doing. Zillow and Trulia, if you know where they live, you can figure out how much their house is worth. And it gives you an idea of their wealth. There are a lot of net worth sites out there and they're not all celebrity driven. If you have Razor's Edge as your CRM, your contact management system, there's a subset of that, a separate subscription thing called Research Point, where if you feed your Razor's Edge database into it and it comes up with a lot of financial information about your existing donors, donor search also subscription thing does the same thing. So these are all ways you can find out about the people you've done. And once you've done all of this, you have to begin cultivating them. And I'm not going to go into cultivation because there's so much out there about it. But what I will say is remember that disasters give you a new opportunity to cultivate donors. You know, you can do hard head tours. You can do happen participate in panels. You can do museum re-envisioning town halls and that sort of thing. So there are suddenly new ways to engage them and cultivate them. Now the ask, and I'm sorry, in the translation from me to Jess, some of my slides got a little walky in terms of spacing. Smaller donations, let's start there. Appeals, targeted donations, adopter campaigns. You know, you do many, many ways that you already know and you've probably already received are the ways to go to your smaller donors. But the thing that you really need to watch out with is donor fatigue. Remember, you're going to be raising money for a long time after that disaster. You know, one client who I will get to in a moment has been doing it for eight years. So how do you avoid donor fatigue? First off, be creative. You know, people get bored with the same old solicitations. So mix it up, think of new ways of asking them for money. And be different from everyone else. If you're in, you know, a situation like a hurricane, you know, everyone else is going to be appealing to a lot of the same people for disaster funding. Reframe yours so it isn't the same one appeal that they're getting from everybody else. Use visuals. Show the state of need. Don't be afraid to show less than ideal storage conditions of your collection, what's going on with them. Show progress. You know, this is what it looked like right after the tornado and here's what we've been able to do with your donations thus far. And don't think in terms of large scale. 100 million books, documents, whatever. Your donors can't wrap their minds around that. Know that they think their $100 donation is really going to make a difference. So think smaller. Break it down to one book, one document, one object. And suddenly that $100 can actually do something. Create a team effort. You know, ask them to join the disaster recovery with their donation and of course, you know, the obvious naming opportunities. We all know them well. Now I just want to stop for a moment and talk very briefly about the tax laws and the changes in the tax laws because there's a lot of doom and gloom out there with regard to its impact on charitable giving. And it's not going to impact your big guns. It's not going to impact those high 5, 6, 7, 8, if you can get them, figure donors. It's going to impact the little guy, your $150,000, $5,000, up to about $10,000. Because as you know, the tax law didn't change charitable giving rules. What it changed was the standard deduction. So what we're anticipating is that if people don't have to itemize deductions anymore, they don't have to give. Well, the reality is that only 30% of the population was itemizing anyway. And if you think in terms of, you know, 55%, 60% of the nation gives, there's a lot of people there that weren't itemizing and were still giving. So we don't anticipate it, despite all the doom and gloom. It's going to impact. People are still going to give. It's intrinsic gives us. It's part of why we are considered the most philanthropic country in the world. And if you look at the numbers, we really are. I just did a presentation in England. And yeah, you know, they, in 2016, they gave about $15 billion. We gave $390 billion. So we're a generous country. And the key is to make sure your donors still love you. And if you keep them cultivating them and stewarding them as donors and making them feel loved, they will still give to you. So it's, it's the tax issue. I don't view as a big attack issue. Now we're going to talk briefly about crowdfunding. And Jess, I have another crowdfunding poll for everybody. Is it the online campaign one? Yeah, there it is. Yeah. Sorry. So if anybody has done a crowdfunding campaign, I'm interesting to know if you were able to reach your goal, come close to it, get nowhere near it, or if you raised very little money. There we go. Oh, we got a hundred percent. Oh, okay. Now we're starting to move. All right. Is it true that only five of you have done? No, we've got some more coming in now. So people are seem to be coming either close to their goal or raising very little money. We'll give it to another second. Okay. All right. Thanks, Jess. Great. All right. Crowdfunding. I'm not going to discuss platforms because there's so much out there about them. But I wanted to just toss in a few thoughts, mainly because you will be probably doing one. And just like when we all jumped on the social media bandwagon, we all started jumping onto the crowdfunding bandwagon as well. But the reality of it is that it requires strategy in setting realistic goals. You can't set up a campaign and expect to reach your goal three days later and double your donor base. It's not going to happen because what a crowdfunding campaign is really about is empowering your current supporters. And I'm not talking about donors. I'm talking about your Facebook friends, your Twitter followers, those who do whatever it is you do on Instagram and Snapchat or any of the other social media platforms. They don't necessarily give money, but they're still your stakeholders because they're coming to your exhibitions, your events, that sort of thing. They're the ones that are going to help you find donors because you're going to empower them to do that. And you have to make it easy for them to forward information to the friends. See, sending them e-blast, Facebook status updates, tweets, anything, you name it, that they can easily forward to their friends and do it weekly within the campaign. So they're getting it consistently and frequently. And the key is to encourage them to forward that blast and ask their friends to, you know, encourage their friends to give as well. So, hi, I just gave to this really great cause. I would love to see some of my friends do so as well. Now, this may seem like a lot when you're in the throes of disaster recovery and everything, but if you plan accordingly, it won't be. Fundraising success is not made during the fundraiser, which is why a lot of you may not have gotten to your goal or raised very little money. You need to plan for that promotion and everything before the launch. So that means your ask, your update emails, your status updates, your tweets, everything is ready to go so that all you have to do is hit send during your campaign. And because you're going to be busy administering all those great gifts you're getting, it really does make it so much easier. Now, major gifts. And I wanted to touch base on this as well, mainly because you're going to be raising millions of dollars. And the only way to do a major gift ask like that for a six or seven-figure gift is through a face-to-face meeting. And go in with a game plan. You know, you'll know who the people going to the meeting are, make sure everyone's on board with what the ask is going to be, what it's going to be for, and who's going to be doing the ask, which is the most important thing. Don't, you know, helpful hints. Don't sell yourself short on the request amount. Ask for what your research shows that donor is capable of giving. Don't think asking for less is going to make them say yes, because people know what things cost. You know, they know a new roof is going to be half a million dollars. So if you ask them for 25, they'll be like, why are you wasting my time? So, you know, really just ask for what you know they're willing to give. Make your pitch and then listen. You know, listen for issues of concern. Answer the questions. Hear what the donor has to say. And don't prod or push, because that usually results in a smaller gift. You know, really, you know, make sure you address what's bothering them about it. If there's anything, or they're, you know, their comments about it, or how you're handling something or that kind of thing. And be positive, even if they say no. And use that no response to keep the conversation going. Don't view it and...plows going by. Don't, you know, figure that, okay, well, that's it. No. You can sit down and say, if they say no, ask them why. Not now? Okay. Can we come back to you and discuss this again any year? You know, not this project. Well, you know, I've got this other thing going on. Maybe perhaps, you know, can I talk to you about it when we're in a better place to get moving on it? That kind of thing. Oh, you know, make it open. End that conversation so you have it open so you can come back to them. And if you're afraid, rehearse it. Rehearse it with your board member or whomever is doing the ask. Because, and there's no real need to be afraid because in the reality is if you've done it right, if you've cultivated that donor and everything, they're going into the meeting knowing exactly what it is about. They know they're going to get asked for money. And it's a little dance. You have to do that ask because they're not going to give without it. But you, you know, you, they know what's coming. And just realize too that if they say no, it's not you. It's the project. It's the institution maybe. It's the no has nothing to do with you personal. It's not personal. All right. Corporations are the last one to look through as well. You know, and again, everyone will be going to the same companies or the corporations themselves will be in their own recovery. But that doesn't necessarily mean you don't want to put on a good face in the community. So why do they give, you know, they want to have that positive image in the community and it's good business. Data shows that philanthropic corporation actually has a better bottom line than one that doesn't. So how do they give? Outright or matching gifts, you know, cash, pro bono equipment or services, you know, maybe you need a backhoe for cleanup. You know, they might lend you one. The facilities use. You can have that board meeting in your institution so maybe they have a conference room you can use. In kind gifts, computer equipment, office supplies, you know, providing food for a quicky benefit, all that kind of thing is what they can do. And then obviously sponsorship, because that's what we all know. Now, you do need to research them as well. Remember, I told you, oops, it's not forwarding. It's not forwarding. Okay, thank you. You know, as I said, 85% of fundraising is research. So how do you find out about them? You know, usual places, press releases, SEC filings, again, those financial websites, Edgers, Hoover's, Bloomberg, corporate foundations. And they're usually on a company website under community. And even if there is no foundation, this is often where programs or initiatives, the corporate is made possible will be listed. And if you're looking at the little guys or the small companies in your community, look at your Chamber of Commerce, look at your CDCs. They can all provide great information for you. And Jess, can you advance, please? Thank you. Helpful hints for these. You know, thinking beyond cash, again, going back to what I just said, the in-kind gifts, the loan of equipment, that sort of thing. But don't forget the little guy. Often when one thinks of corporations, you think of the, you know, the Microsoft, the American Express, the Goldman's. And usually when clients come to me and say, oh, we want to go to Goldman, I go, yeah, you could, but you'd probably get Vapkas. You know, unless you're a major institution with a multimillion-dollar budget, these folks aren't going to know you. But the little guys, the smaller companies in your area, have much more to gain from you in terms of publicity and community goodwill. So they will be much more approachable for this. And approaching to, you know, you need to have them approach them with a business mindset because this is how they will think. And as conservatives, we're not trying to think this way, but you have to. You have to, you know, use marketing techniques to pique their interest, show the profit they will make by investing in quotes in your project, figure out how you fit into their corporate strategy. So speak that language, you know, markets, clients, return on investment, tangibles, and, you know, the impact that your cause will do for them. And this kind of goes back to, you know, where we've been used to so many years with that interface between nonprofit, museum, historic house, archive library, whatever, you know, interfacing the corporations with the name on the wall. They were the exhibition sponsors and that kind of thing. When the market tank battle changed. And the fact is, is that we don't know what the other wants anymore. So I always say, take the leadership roles in the negotiation because that's what it is. It's a negotiation. You know, ask what their goals are, that's what yours are. And then find the areas of alignment and build from there. And the key, as an corporate foundation person told me once, is to start with what you can't offer. Because once both parties in the negotiation understand the limitations, that can all get put aside and the options that can be put on the table and negotiated will be part of that negotiations. So in other words, if you're a historic house and you're talking to a corporation, okay, you can't have them have a client dinner in your historic dining room. But you may be able to do a drinks reception in their garden. So keep those things in mind. Foundations. Now in the time of a disaster, many will step up and, you know, so immediately contact those you have existing relationships with to see if they're able to give you some sort of emergency money. When the market tanked again, the Henry Luce Foundation ceased taking any new grantees and solely just started giving emergency support to their existing grantees. So it does happen. And again, how do you find them? Again, it's research. And I'm going to go through this quickly because this is very obvious. I think we all know the Foundation Directory online. It's a subscription base. There is now FDO Free, which profiles about 90,000 private foundations so you can look in terms of location and that kind of thing. You can't search on Subject Matter. You know, looking at foundation websites, more and more of them have them now. So it's not like you, it's hit or miss with that. The only place it could be hit or miss are family, the smaller family foundations in your area. And those were where you can look to the 990s or the tax filings. And so, you know, it's the public document on the Foundation Center's website. There is a 990 Finder. So you can go there and plug in which foundation you're looking for. With regard to government agencies, it's all very clearly stated because they have to. But really, if I was going to say anything, I would say make sure your online vendor registrations are all up to date. You know, your Grants.gov's got to be up to date if you're going to go to FEMA. So, you know, make sure your state ones, I know New York State has them and New York City has them and all of that. But also, too, don't just think federal. Think, you know, your state SHPO, your preservation office, your state archive, libraries, the Arts and Humanities Councils, the local county agencies, all of them are sources for disaster funding. Now, you've had the funding. You've found your view. You've gotten your list of donors. How are you going to communicate that disaster situation? And the most successful way to do that is through a story. People react more positively to a good story. It elicits an emotional response and when people feel emotional about something, they tend to give to it. Look at all those ASPCA ads with those very sad-looking dogs. Yeah, it makes you just want to go right to check immediately. But the thing about stories is it gets you beyond the hard data. It helps folks understand what's going on and the issues regarding your collection or building that's been hit by the disaster. Again, it goes back to that one book, one document, one object. Tell that story about that artifact and what it went through for the disaster. And suddenly, you've got something they can relate to and it's easier and it elicits that emotional response. You're going to have to make a case for need. And while this may seem obvious, our building fell apart, it's not about financial need. It's about justifying the need for your recovery work. So what's the problem? How are you going to solve it? And what's the impact of it? You need to articulate yours and the recovery's value to the community. Why is it necessary? Why is it good for the community? And showing you're an integral part of the community, how you're going to contribute to it, how are you helping to solve its problems, particularly when the community was also impacted by that disaster. What is that positive change beyond your walls? And evaluation. It used to be about we reached our goals. Yay. But now it's about the positive changes as a result of your work. It's the external results that matter. And how did you define it? How did you figure it out? That evaluation methodology is what donors now want to see. And if you need help in wrapping your head around this and understanding how to do it, I highly recommend you go to the IMLS's website and on there somewhere in one of the dropdowns, there's a little online course called Shaping Outcomes and it walks you through how to evaluate what your audience is getting from your programs. It talks about how to quantify it, how to qualify it. It talks about how to define the changes in attitudes, behaviors, skills, and all of that. And it's a really great resource that takes you about an hour. Thank you, Eric. Jess, it really helps you understand how to put this all together. Now, before we go into our case studies, Jess, we have one more poll, I believe. Sorry, one moment. Just getting it moved over. Actually, I think there's this one Okay, yeah, just so, yeah, we can actually do both of them. I was interested to find out how many people had issues with Harvey. So you're sort of in this phase of post-disaster fundraising. We're several months out. So these are the things I've been talking about, are the things you're having to really, you know, start dealing with an addressing now. Okay, so a lot of you aren't even involved in fundraising for it. Okay, and some of you have. Okay, great, thanks, Jess. Okay, so now what I want to do is take all of what I've just talked about and talk about, in three case studies, sort of three different ways that disasters were described and how we raised the funds for them. And I'm starting out with the Friends of Canetquat. And there it is, Lovely Park. And they are a state parks friends group. And they're dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and history of the Canetquats River State Park and Preserve, which is located on an Oakdale Long Island. It is a long, if any of you know the area, there's the North Shore Gold Coast, which is where all the Gilded Age mansions were. There was also a South Shore Gold Coast as well, and it's located within that. And what makes the park so special is, besides the fact that it was originally part of a Royal Patent, given to one of the founding Long Island families in the 17th century. In the 19th century, it became the Southside, Southside Sportsmen's Club of Long Island, which is where the Vanderbilts, the Roosevelt's, the Carnegie's, the Whitney's, all of those notable Gilded Age family, the boys, all went to fish. And they built these wonderful shingle style buildings. You can see one of them to the right. And they built several other buildings on the site. The construction you see on the left is actually a colonial Grismill that the Friends did the restoration of. It's almost done. But the thing about it, in addition to all these buildings, one of them in there was the oldest hatch house in New York and the country, which opened in 1884. And this is the project I want to talk about. Kinequat is known as one of the premier trout fishing sites in the world. And they had a hatchery that the boys built, as I call them, the boys. They had been operating continuously for over 120 years until January 2009, when the Department of Environmental Conservation denied the permit renewals because there was a detection of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus, otherwise known as IPM. And this is a pathogen that's detrimental to juvenile trout, but not humans. And I have to say, this is how you learn a lot by doing fundraising. I now know more about IPM than anybody should in their lifetime. And at that time, because the state was in Financial Ministers 09, so it was slightly after the market time, the state couldn't deal with it immediately, the Friends took it on as one of their projects. And I won't go too into detail about it, but basically they clean the hatchery of the IPM virus and then they switch the water source for the rearing of the eggs and the fry and everything. So they started using well water, whereas it had been river water in the past. So if there was another infection or another outbreak, the river wouldn't be impacted. So it's clean water and all of this. So this has become a disaster of a different sort because it was one whose impact reached far beyond the preserve itself. It had a, the force closure had a devastating impact on the environment because suddenly the river had no more trout, which means all of the birds and wildlife that were feeding on the trout were leaving or not being able to go there anymore. But also the local community was really impacted by it. So you had, you know, paid entry of fishermen was down by 90%. Overall, visitorship was down by 30%. Because they've had no permits, all of the educational classes that were using the hatchery, whether it be the local technical schools or the school children, all of that visitation was down and all of these programs were cancelled. And the closure made it impossible for the preserve to participate in the governor's initiative to expand fishing clinics. But the biggest impact was the losses in the fees, the financial impact. Because it wasn't just that half a million a year the preserve was losing in parking fees and fishing fees and school program fees and all of that. You had an impact in the local economy in Suffolk County and New York State as a whole. Because, you know, the sales tax revenue in the local businesses, the hotels, the restaurants, the sporting shops, they were seeing a reduction in page and niche because there were no anglers coming into the preserve. So they were losing, businesses were closing as well as sales tax revenues were down. The handicapped, the park is one of the few handicapped accessible fishing sites in the state. So suddenly you had this whole audience that couldn't fish anymore. So with all of that, we focused instead the fundraising not on the importance of the hatchery as a historic site but on the economic impact to both the preserve and the community. And because of this, we were able to broaden the scope of the funders we approached. So in addition to the local government agencies, because after all this had a countywide impact, we were able to look at economic development funders, we were able to look at local business foundations. We were able to look at environmental funders. So we were able to add to all of the existing pool of members and angler groups that we were already there. So how did we present it? What was the story we told? Well, you know the usual cultural and historic recreational tourism that for every dollar invested in tourism generates $51 in the private sector. Recreational cultural tourists, in our case, spend more than other tourists. We tend cultural or recreational attractions bring in new dollars and retain local dollars. So there are those sort of usual but then there's the more direct economic benefits. You have salaries. You have businesses that are coming into the community as a result of the fishing. So the people they're hiring they're making salaries that bring that money back into the economy. Real estate purchases and rentals for those businesses, people living there. The professionals hiring, the contractors, the marketers, the finance people and all of that. The supplies that are being purchased and of course the tax revenues. Then you have the indirect benefits. The dynamic recreational resources attract individuals and businesses that you know it's an improvement of quality of life. And if you have a great community that's going to attract highly skilled workers and the businesses are going to move into the communities with highly skilled workers. So overall the economic development improved as in a revolt. It all works together. So suddenly this emergency of IPM wasn't just about recovering the building and cleaning the building out. It was about improving the overall economic stability of the area. And the friends, you know, they have spearheaded the restoration of two important structures at the preserve. That little mill I showed you previously, and the hatchery. They've received awards for their efforts. They're considered a role model for other New York state parks friends groups. And since we've been working together we have raised over a million dollars for various projects at the preserve. And it's really not bad for an organization whose operating budget is up to $30,000 a year. Now case study two is the Barna Museum and the show must go on. And this is a much more typical disaster. I'm just going to take a quick sip of water. On June 24th, 2010, an EF1 tornado formed over the city of Bridgeport. And I know in Texas this is not unusual in Connecticut it is. And it hit without warning. There was no sign, nothing on the weather system, anything like that. And when it landed, it hit right in front of the Barna Museum. The damage, needless to say, was monumental. The dome at the top of the building twisted. And you can see the damage here. The windows, you can see in the ground floor those huge plate glass windows. They all shattered. And one of them was by the air intake for the HVAC system. There's the one. And so all of that debris from the storm and the glass and images can't convey. Sorry, I'm seeing we had no images. I'm seeing them, just so you know. Hang on. Okay, okay, people got them. Okay, great. So this is by the air intake for the HVAC. So all of that debris and images really can't convey. You can kind of look. You can kind of see some of it here and here. But all of that went into the HVAC system and went out, blew out into the galleries. So the only way I can describe it is is when you walked into the galleries a few days afterwards it looked like everything had been sprayed with fairy dust. It was all sparkling with all that pulverized glass. There was a hole in the roof. And there's Barry. Barry came to visit us for several days after the storm. He was very, very confused. And then the collections had sort of the things you would typically think you'd see in a situation like that. You know, water damage, mold damage and that sort of thing. But in the true spirit of Barnum, the show must go on. And this is actually the brainchild of the director, Kathy Marr. You know, who despite all of this went to Home Depot and got a can of spray paint and plastered that on the building. And she says it's a testament to the sense of humor that all had regarding the situation. And she likes everybody to know that if you're dealing with this you have to keep the sense of humor. It's key because it's really the only way you can get through. Now in the days following the storm, the staff went into triage on the collections. They made sure the thousands of objects were assessed, you know, and again it exhibited the typical type of damage. And then once the artifacts were secured then they really started looking at the extent of the damage in the building and looking at the scope and getting an idea of what it was cost. Now when all of that was done, they could have said we're going dark because, you know, we had a tornado and we're going dark for the duration of the recovery. But they decided to see the tornado as a paradox that the scary reality was a remarkable opportunity to move the museum into the 21st century and do something really innovative and creative. So figuring out what the future of the museum was going to be was what was the disaster recovery was all about. And that's what the story for the fundraising became. Not the damage, but the future of an important institution within the community. So as a major effort to remain vital in the community and re-engage their membership, their general audience, the museum opened on a limited basis in April 2010, so about two years after the storm. It was opened in an adjacent undamaged space and they did it with an exhibition called Recovery in Action. And this enabled members, sponsors, guests to view the activities of the museum during this unusual time and have a rear behind the scenes view of the complexity of disaster recovery of a major historic institution and a collection. There was a looping PowerPoint program and video going showing the damage inside the building because you couldn't take anybody in there. It was too dangerous. They maintained their school and education programs for children and lifelong learners in this adjacent space and through outreach. And they continued to do things with their collection. We were awarded an NEH grant to do a collection partner digitization project with the library at Bridgeport. So through all of this, we were able to go to funders and say we were still a viable cultural resource providing the service to the community and we were engaging our donors and our audience so they wouldn't forget us. And it served as a way to introduce new funders and because we had something to show them and we were also still making our collections accessible even though it was only online. But more importantly because it was about re-envisioning the museum, we were able to go to funders for that aspect of the project. So we received money to hire scholars for the development of the new content. We were able to bring in the right exhibition designers to take all that scholarship and combine it with Barnum's showmanship to put together a seamless captivating experience for the visitor. We could go to agencies like the NEH for a challenge grant which are capacity building grants because that's what we were doing. We were building our capacity and we were able to go to like the NEH and the IMLS for collection-wide preservation things like HVA systems and that because we were planning on implementing sustainable preservation strategies. Now in recent years the message has been changed to re-envisioning the museum because a lot of this background work has sort of been done. And if you want to see how this is all coming together, Kathy Maher did a great TED Talk and you can Google it where she really goes through the multimedia presentation they are planning and it's really going to change how the visitor engages with collections, stories and themes. It's really wonderful. But if there were any lessons she was going to take from this and I'll say it again, it's critical that the community be at the center. You need them to be at the table if you want their support whether it be financial or otherwise so they really have community workshops to get people to get their input. And what they learned along the way is that no one really cared about the tornado. The recovery effort shifted to what the museum could do for them, whoever that them was at the time. So the learning takeaway on this is that the community doesn't think you're relevant, you're not. And that's what legislators want to see so you need to continue to be relevant if you want to get that government funding. How are you creating jobs? How are you part of the economic impact? And the reality is that this is where funders are going now. It's not about the institution anymore, it's not about the object anymore and if you've heard me talk and other fundraising for conservation sessions and meetings I say this a lot. It's become about that broader impact. And what is that object you've conserved going to be doing to benefit the community? How is it going to be used to educate? How is it going to be used to engage and all of that after the treatment? And I always give a point is several years ago after the market time, a lot of things changed when the economy dropped. New York State has these great historic preservation grants and bricks and mortar grants and they're one of the few that are available. But now they're all about this. It's a 62 question application. Two questions are about sign significance. The rest of it is about how many jobs are you creating? How are you fulfilling state initiatives and all of that? Now, Case Study 3, and sorry again for the space in here, is about going back to that issue of donor fatigue and presenting the Merchants House Museum. And the Merchants is, if you know it, it's a truly unique New York institution. It was built in 1832 and the Treble family moved into it in 1835 and basically lived there until 1933. So, you know, just about a hundred years. And it was a cousin who turned it into a museum. And it's significant because it's a rare survivor. And so you have the family's possessions because we still have those, that's what the bulk of the collection is that are used to interpret the interiors that are still the same as when the family lived in it. And I'm sorry, we're missing the photo of the house there. And it is, it's a, you know, national state city landmark and it's a city landmark for both its interior and exterior. It is known for having some of the best ornamental plaster work in New York City and of the country. And in April 2012, plans were announced to put a hotel in the lot adjacent to it. And that was the plaster work site. So you can see here, this garage, that's where they wanted to put a hotel. The problem with it is it caused a great deal of concern because the design, and you can see it here, you can see this, it's, you know, I'm trying to get a little viral. It's, oh never mind, it's the building, let's do it. Anyway, you know, it was uncontextual in the Noho Historic District. It was going to cause real issues with the house, you know, and because what you can't see here is that they were actually planning on using the house's west wall. But, you know, major concern was that decorative plaster because, you know, any building shipped, even an eighth of an inch was going to cause irreparable damage. So in the ensuing two years, the hotel became a catalyst for community action. The house government officials, preservation organizations, local residents rally to protect the house and the neighborhood sense of place. There were loads of petitions signed and hearings and all of that. But despite the fact that they didn't like the height of the building and they didn't like the materials they were going to be using, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the hotel in 2014. And if you're unaware of how our Landmarks Preservation Commission works, if you want to do any work mainly on the exterior of a historic landmark or within a historic district, you need to get the approval of the commission. Now, despite the developers' insurance, assurances that all, you know, precautions were going to be taking, the reality is that we had nothing in writing. So while lawyers were off negotiating, the house was being proactive and conducting assessments, you know, to predict possible damage and developing protection plans for the structure of the collection. And I can't say in the last three years there's been a lot of delays and changes and, you know, the cast of characters is constantly in flux. So construction has not started yet, thankfully. But despite that, we're still consistent, you know, in keeping that disaster in the forefront of the audience mind and thus the focus of their philanthropy. First, the building's collection and the building's and the collection's fragility served as a springboard for educational program aimed at correcting the misconception a landmark is guaranteed survival and that there are many diverse issues that it is not immune from. So an educational program called Landmark Handled with Care was developed and it included lectures and workshops featuring noted experts that address topics such as the care and conservation of the historic cluster work and, you know, to the bricks and mortar work that constantly takes place to ensure the house's structural stability. You know, in all programs, efforts to protect the house from the impending construction was emphasized and, you know, this not only educated donors, it also attracted new donors because we were keeping them engaged and constantly introducing new audiences to the issue. Other ways the construction was used to engage donors, I mean, first obviously it was signing the petitions, writing the letters, giving testimony at the commission and even just being in the room at commission hearings so we could demonstrate that the community wanted the house protective. You know, and this is a way we engaged everybody in it. All the appeals at the time have the hearings and after gave the members and current donors updates on the construction and asset they support the cause. New institutional funders were solicited for technical assistance grants for the protection plans, engineering analysis and communications because you need a publicity plan to do all of this. You know, as well as the legal fees. There's not a lot of legal fees involved. And we also were able to apply to new institutional funders and foundations for the educational programs that focused around the emergency. So like the National Trust, like our local preservation organizations, city funders, state humanities councils, state art councils to name a few and now these funders support other programs at the museum. You know, during tours donors were asked for donations and there's signage around the house explaining the situation and you have to have, you know, we did an online campaign because you have to do, eventually you will do crowdfunding. And new groups have been introduced to the house through collaborative events and I'll give you a pretty shot of the garden to finish off here. You know, again, you know, this shows how collaboration can be so useful. You know, their members seeing how special the houses have become members, they become attendees at programs and donors themselves. And at the last one, we had one back in the fall. You know, everybody there knew about the construction and we're asking about it. So the message is getting out there, even though we're six years out from when it's still at the news. And despite the fight, the museum has continued to implement its historic restoration and furnishing plans and it always remains open during the work so visitors could see what was involved in preserving the historic site and what could be lost as a result of the construction. And that message that the museum is continuing on despite this threat also gets told through other fundraising campaigns like the care specific objects or new initiatives. The furniture you saw in the front parlor, a lot of that had been reimpolstered, new curtains were working on, raising ones to recreate the original carpet. You know, our benefits, our galas, they all serve as a way to remind donors. So in other words, the museum continues to offer its programming, yet the visitor is consistently reminded about, sometimes quietly, that the specter of the construction next door is still very much there. And by using all these different avenues to keep the members abreast of the situation, we freely prevented donor fatigue. We don't get the, oh, that construction project again? I've already given to that. We don't hear that at all. We hear donors who are constantly asking us, well, where are things now? How can I help? And all of that. They're still engaged in that emergency and they're still willing to get to that cause. So with that, I am going to say thank you and take any questions. These studies is blocked. I think it really brings home the points that you just made earlier in the presentation. So I didn't see any questions coming in throughout the course of the slides, but if anyone does have anything that they'd like to ask Susan, please do go ahead and drop it in the chat window there. I imagine many of you who were affected by Harvey either in the midst of some crazy activity, to ramp those up in the near future. So any questions you might have? And Susan, thank you so much for generously sharing your contact or your website information here, because I think that's a great resource for everyone. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. My E-blasts are on there under the resources link as of my contact. So if you think of anything afterwards, please drop me a line. Happy to help. Just wait for a moment to see if that question comes through. I could take a sip of water. Sorry again for the... Now my super is snow blowing. That's on my window. Oh, thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. I would encourage you all to go to Susan's site there to find out some more. I want to go ahead. Okay, so yeah, do you see Liz's question there? We've got multiple attendees typing. It's a very hard thing. Again, I think Liz, it goes back to that where... It's not about making a compelling case for the arts. It's making a compelling case for the arts benefit to the community. It goes back to that. We have this institution that was equally destroyed, but how will it help those who are impacted by the disaster? So if you have a case of something like Harvey, is your institution... Can it be used? Can arts programming, whether it be mental health things or something like that be used to help people get through the stress of the disaster? You know, are you able to use your facility to help organizations whose facilities were damaged or destroyed by the storm that can be used? So it's not just about the arts anymore. Excuse me, as I said before, it's not just about the object. It's about how that can all be used in the broader community outside of the on-road walls. With the broader emergency response community. So people who are coming at these events at different priorities is that it really is important to keep in mind the cultural objects that are affected because it's good for the mental health community. Exactly. Yeah, I've actually been doing a lot with mental health. One of my new clients is the Royal Foundation of Will's Cade and Harry. So I was over in London recently and mental health is one of their areas of interest. So it's been sort of learning how to use arts and things like that to help foster better mental health. There's some interesting information coming out there. I just want to go ahead and say, I know that all of you who are participating in this training are coming from a wide range of different institutions and working in private practice. And I know that this is a topic that is going to be differently applicable to you all in your different settings. I'm very grateful for the way that Susan has structured this content to resonate with each of you, regardless of whether you're going to be directly involved with fundraising activities or perhaps helping to shape some of those questions within your organization. Exactly. Yeah, it's about, as I said, with some of you who have the larger development departments, it helps you speak their language and it helps you understand how Jeff just trained that situation for when they're going to funders and all of that. Yeah, exactly. In a way, yes. In a way, I mean, in the case of Merchant's House, we were just dealing with the building itself, but I think there is a lot about organizational relevance and where a lot of institutions are having to rethink their role in the community, you know, in order to still be viable within that. And I know here in New York, with a lot of the historic preservation groups, we're going through a lot of that because of, you know, we have a mayor who wants to rip everything down and we're fighting to stay relevant within that. Well, I see a few other people typing. So while we're waiting for those to pop up, I just want to point out that I earlier pulled over the survey link that you all should be familiar with. So after we wrap up, please be sure to click on that, evaluate the webinar text, and then click the Browse To button, which will take you to the survey. Data we've collected from the last couple of surveys show that you all spend around two minutes on this, which speaks to how low of a burden it is. So please do spend the two minutes following this session to fill out the survey as well. Thank you for the feedback you provide us so far. Okay, so do you see Steve's comment there? Yeah. I'm actually, I'm reading through it. Yeah, I mean, this is very true for a lot of conservators. And, you know, particularly if you're in bigger institutions, you're not leading the fundraising for them. But that doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't have a place at the table. And that's one of the things I can say when I've talked to, you know, the usual suspects of our funders, that's one of the things they really do want to see more of. So I think, you know, if you're able to foster that and get yourself in there, you can have more of an input in terms of fundraising for disaster situations. And yes, you're right, you're only getting your 501c3, so you are limited. But once you do, then you can really start moving along. And, you know, I've worked with organizations that are still going through that process. Or in the one case, the one that lost their 501c3 status. And you are kind of limited, but they're, you know, they're always around it in terms of individuals because, you know, if they're not looking for the tax deduction or anything like that, you know, they're still able to give to you. Now, and I'm just looking. Pat, sorry to hear that. Hopefully you'll be able to figure out a way to keep yourself relevant in the community and all of that. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Yeah, there's been some really interesting examples of... Ah, okay. Trevor, thanks so much for keeping us started. We'll fund some conservation projects. I don't know if many of you are familiar with the... at the Aaron Space Museum, the astronaut suit they were working on, or the Ruby slippers at American History. So, yeah, I'm curious to see what that model looks like in the future, especially for supporting specific project work like that. Exactly. I mean, the thing is, as I said, it's getting the word out there. You know, the concept that people go on Kickstarter looking for things to give to, it's not the reality. It's really getting your supporters and your constituency to get their friends to give it well. Well, Susan, I think you've given us all... That is where the success of it is. Really valuable food for things. You know, more so than just being our share. We're grateful to you for sharing your words of wisdom, and thank you to everyone who joined us for the program today. Special gratitude for the folks in Texas, and sunny Texas for your patience with us and our snow day difficulties. Well... But again, we're thankful to everyone for taking the time to discuss this important topic today, and thank you again, Susan. We'll have a wonderful rest of your Wednesday afternoon. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. And as I said, drop me a line if you have any other questions or want to talk further.