The collection is the business

Working with Museum Development Officers
in the East Midlands 

A team of museum development officers (MDOs) has been in post, working to advise and support the region’s smaller and independent museums.

a) How can your museum development officer help?
Museum development officers act as the first point of call for advice and support on all aspects of museum development; from funding, to collections care, management, learning, access, interpretation and much more. If you have an issue you require support with, contact your museum development officer in the first instance and they will either be able to provide advice themselves, or, put you in touch with other local or regional organisations who will be able to help. MDOs can also support museums to achieve nationally recognised standards such as the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s Accreditation standard.   

b) Regional Grant Fund
The work of the MDOs is supported by the Renaissance East Midlands Regional Grant Fund. All smaller and independent museums in the region are eligible to apply to this scheme, which will fund any aspect of museum development. Grants of between £250 and £3000 are considered, and bids are intended to be developed in consultation with MDOs who are there to help shape your proposal, and suggest other funders who may be able to support your developments too.    

c) Regional and national initiatives
MDOs help to coordinate participation in regional and national initiatives such as Museums and Galleries Month and Learn with Museums/Strategic Commissioning and other Renaissance East Midlands-funded programmes. They also organise the Renaissance Heritage Awards in their counties, entry to which is open to all museums.

d) Partnerships
MDOs are the link between local, county-wide, regional and national organisations and are building partnerships with local and regional organisations to help support their county’s museums. They also ensure that all museums throughout the region have a voice at all levels and as such help to promote individual museums and the cause of museums in general. All the East Midlands counties have a museums or heritage forum supported by their MDO which acts as a support network offering a vital shared voice for the counties museums.

For more information, please contact your museum development officer.

Funding sources

There is no secret to success in funding. You need to be ready to take up what is available, possibly at short notice and fit your needs to the needs of the organisation who might be giving out the funds.

The MLA East Midlands website has a link to the J4B funding site. Use this as a gateway to potential contacts for funding.

• Funds are limited so you must be at the top of your game to find out what is available and where
• Funds are often only available for a set time period – so you need to be precise with your timing of applications
• Funds are time limited – so it is always worthwhile going back to organisations to see what they have available at any one point of time. Just because you have been knocked back in one application does not mean that, when there are different funds available, the same organisation will not look upon you favourably this time
• Funds are often for specific purposes – be careful to see that your organisation and its aims fit the demands of the potential funding
• Funds may be available to you because they are local, county based, regional, related to a school or sports project that you are hoping to start, tourism related, to do with economic development, developing your staff etc
• Funds often have short deadlines for applications. An up-to-date business plan should help in providing much of the information that you will need for those applications as you will have already done some of the planning behind potential projects. You may even have some projects in the pipeline but not time specific that can be brought to the fore should funding become available
• Develop a good business relationship with the relevant Lottery officers, MLA officers. Keep in contact at least every 6 months so that they know what you are doing in your museum at the moment and so that you are up-to-date with what is available
• Keep in contact with your MDO (Museum Development Officer). Discuss your funding needs with them and discuss applications with them – before you submit anything
• You may be able to benefit from the business status of your organisation – specific funds may be available to registered charities or not be available to companies limited by guarantee
• Use the tax initiatives such as the Gift Aid Scheme where applicable to your organisation
• Sometimes it is possible to attend events and have training etc at no cost instead of making an application to receive funds in order to pay for something direct. Use schemes such as Business in the Community and Arts & Business to see where you can receive assistance
• A sports supporting organisation is not likely to look favourably on your theatre bid. However, if your theatre bid is looking at athletics and is likely to encourage more young people to get out and take part in sports (and you show evidence of this potential result) then you may be looking in the right place

Funding sources (14 kb)

Product development

Your museum is your product, with the items in your collection and the facilities available to your visitors, all adding to this product.

Is your museum the same as it has always been?
Are you still offering visitors the same display and set up as you did when you first opened 5, 10, 20 or more years ago?

Goods and services that we buy in our everyday lives seem to be forever advertised as ‘new and improved’. This keeps our interest in the product and we then want the newest version etc. This principle should be applied to your museum.

Why should anyone come back to visit the museum a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time?’

It may be that the fabric of your museum and the display does not actually change frequently because of the nature of the museum. You may therefore plan to have a variety of services and events that go with the museum experience.

Visitors can be repeat visitors as well as new. It takes a great deal of energy to get the visitors interest in your museum initially so you really should try to keep them once you have got them.

• Visit other museums of the same kind of collection and see how they do things
• Can you use this information to add to your visitor experience at your museum?
• Think about the experience of a visitor who might already know a lot about the collection and want to know more, but also think about the visitor who arrives at your site not knowing very much.
• How do you get their interest and keep their interest?
• Visit your museum from the point of view of visitors of various ages and abilities, ideally ask friends to assist you in this so that you get realistic feedback. Remember that the visit a person makes to your museum may be the first time they have ever set foot in a museum and they may find the experience daunting.