Sometimes You Don't Really Need Money at All

I attended a great conference workshop about creating exhibitions on a shoestring budget.

My favorite part of the workshop was this great retired sailor who was volunteering with a maritime museum. He was not a professional fundraiser or a professional public humanities person, he was just this smart, old guy who loved boats and used his common sense and his lifetime's worth of experience to help "his" museum share the love of boats with the public.

He told us, "You don't really need money now do you? You need stuff. So ask for stuff."

After you've been asking for stuff for a few years you start to call them "in-kind donations" but this volunteer really hit the nail on the head.

People who might be very reluctant to give you money may be very willing to give you a thing.

People who give us things at the Historical Society often start to like us and eventually give us more and better things or sometimes even money.

One example and then I'll sign off.

I wrote a grant asking for money to buy archival shelving. The widow of the man for whom the grant was named called me and said, "Well, we're not going to give you the grant, but I can give you some shelves." Our volunteers went to her house, packed up her shelves and installed them in our archive. They were a perfect fit.