South East Museums

Canterbury Museums & Galleries

Joanna Jones, Director

National Arts Fundraising School residential course

May 2013

To increase knowledge of different funding sources, including major donors, trusts and foundations, individual giving, sponsorship and legacies.

I learnt a huge amount from this course which has helped me to hone my fundraising skills. My learning has been shared with other members of the Canterbury Museums and Galleries team since. We are about to develop a Fundraising Strategy and action plan which will identify how to diversify income through fundraising. The visitor experience will be enhanced through increased funding to increase access to collections and to develop vibrant exhibitions, learning and community engagement programmes.

The timing was perfect as we are about to initiate a step change in our fundraising, moving from capital (for The Beaney project) to revenue fundraising. We are about to prepare a Fundrarisng Strategy and the learning from the course was extremely useful for this. We have also been benchmarking with other museums which have successful fundraising functions to learn from them. The leader of the National Arts Fundraising course was excellent, very experienced and knowledgeable about fundraising. A cross section of team members will be involved in preparing and delivering the new fundraising strategy.

The course was very helpful in kick starting a step change in our fundraising approach. We are applying to the HLF Catalyst fund to build capacity to enable a new post to increase our membership scheme. A fundraising action plan is also being developed. We have met with Arts Council England and are planning to submit a major Grants for the Arts application by the autumn for a major programme of exhibitions and artist commissions at The Beaney.

£1,785 ex VAT