The Future of Dutch museum Fundraising

Over the past decade fundraising practices have become more important to Dutch museums. Therefore, within museums development departments are growing both in size and in importance. This thesis aims at explaining how Dutch museum development departments respond to signals in the market. This question is answered by four sub-questions: I. How do museum development professionals manage the process of fundraising?, II. How do museum development professionals establish relationships with their donors and sponsors?, III. What incentivises donors and sponsors to donate to or sponsor museums?, and IV. What are the future trends of museum development? The research conducted eleven semi-structured interviews with senior Dutch museum development professionals about their fundraising practices. Therefore, this research has adopted a qualitative research method. The empirical interview data is analysed through four themes, related to the sub-questions: museum development management, establishing donor and sponsor relations through trust, donor and sponsor incentives and the future of museum development. The results show most development professionals learn about museum development ‘on the job’, through ‘mentor relationships’ or through short courses. Moreover, most development professionals lack time to do research on their donors and sponsors. The research also indicates that the relationship between major donors, sponsors and the museum development professional is based on mutual trust. Moreover, the use of the museum network, the visibility of the donations for the donors’ reputation, a sense of social responsibility, a personal connection to the museum, a click with the development professional or the museum director and tax benefits, all motivate donors to give. Moreover, sponsors are using museum sponsorship as a marketing tool to create a positive corporate socially responsible image. Regarding future trends, the research identifies a decline in corporate sponsorship, but an increase in private donations. Moreover, digitization is a useful tool to develop the museum fundraising process and attract a new generation of donors. Lastly, a more inclusive and relationship-based fundraising strategy is needed to attract a broader donor community.