How to Get a Job in a Museum Or Art Gallery - By Alison Baverstock Page 0,49
years. Tom made a personal pledge to give 10 per cent of his income to charity a number of years ago and he and his wife support a wide range of charities.
They were approached about sponsorship by an organisation they now support, having progressed through various different types of privileged membership, and were not offended to be asked. Indeed Tom, a management consultant, appreciated the organisation getting straight to the point about what it wanted. The projects it asks them to sponsor tend to be specific, and targeted to their interests, which they feel it has taken the trouble to understand.
Tom says: ‘In general it’s a positive experience; we all feel at home when we enter the now familiar portals and it’s rare that there is not someone we run into from the management team that we don’t know. This feels pleasant. We have appreciated getting to know more about the organisation and in particular getting our two teenagers involved; it’s somewhere we enjoy going as a family.’
As for little niggles, I eventually extracted the following from Tom:
• ‘The development people have no idea how my world works and how far ahead I am committed. My diary is full 8–10 weeks ahead, and so when they ring to ask me to something the following week I always have to say no.’ After this happened a couple of times, perhaps the development people should have got the message that a lot of notice is needed for Tom to attend, and to match their invitations accordingly.
• Development people obviously vary, but I have come across many who are not particularly good listeners, or who take insufficient trouble to empathise or intellectually engage with the sponsors they are looking after. Tom commented: ‘Sometimes this results in the development people trying to control the sponsors too much; for example only allowing you to visit when they can personally host and insisting that all relationships inside the building are controlled and monitored by them. Sponsorship is often quite formal in that certain levels of sponsor achieve corresponding privileges – but the moment anyone tries to put me in a box, I try just as hard to get out of it.’
• Events which link the sponsors together purely because they are sponsors tend not to be particularly enjoyable. Mary commented: ‘Just because you all give to the same organisation does not necessarily mean you are going to have lots in common and want to spend time with each other. On one particular evening I got rather irritated by the assumptive nature of the conversation, which was prompted by a political event that day. I was irritated by the presumption that because you had enough money to sponsor, you automatically voted Conservative. We have not been regular attendees of such events.’
How to identify potential patrons, individuals and organisations
There is no substitute for networking and being well connected. You may spot an organisation that could offer support, but it will be key individuals within it who are the means of accessing the funds, so knowing who’s who is very helpful. And, once you have identified the key people, it’s important to develop a personal relationship with both them and the people who influence them – often their spouses. You need to know not just names but also inclinations, key values and current giving patterns.
You might invite key individuals to the institution to meet members of staff, for a meal, a chance to see something that may specifically interest them, or to a launch event. The impact of ‘intellectual hospitality’ can be substantial – you don’t just give them a glass of wine and a canapé, you give them interest, knowledge, the company of passionate experts and in doing so spark their curiosity and support, These are things they can’t easily buy. And once they are inside the building you might try to get them further involved in what is planned, perhaps in an organisational capacity, say as a campaign chairman or committee member, in the hope that they may then recruit their contacts to join too. You are in part aiming to persuade potential supporters from an initial stance of ‘How are you going to raise the money?’ to one of ‘How are we going to raise the money?’ which means they have identified with the cause and now see it as partly theirs.
There is also a range of trust funds and charitable organisations that give away money, but can do so only under criteria that link their