Social and Financial Signalling to Increase Fundraising Revenue in Museums

ABSTRACT Faced with the cutbacks in public funding and the changes taking place in the governance and funding models in the cultural sector, museums must rise to the challenge of devising and implementing strategies to obtain resources from a range of sources and thus reduce public sector dependence. Based on a sample of museums from various countries which use private funding, the present work examines different signals that can impact on private fundraising from donors and sponsors: social signals (reputation and social performance) and financial signals (accountability and fundable projects). The results reveal that whereas donors are concerned with all kinds of social and financial signals, sponsors are mainly attracted by reputation and fundable projects. The study also draws a distinction between small and large museums. While the former should offer private funders flexibility in funding, the latter need to evidence social achievements as well as financial features to attract funders.