National Slavery Museum stalled by "sluggish fundraising"

Nearly five years after a ceremonial groundbreaking, the United States National Slavery Museum in Fredricksburg, Virginia appears stalled by "sluggish fundraising" according to the Associated Press.

The museum was supposed to cost $200, however it's unclear how much the organizers still need.

Despite millions of dollars in private and public dollars committed to the museum, organizers have given an unclear accounting of their finances: While the museum cites $50 million available, a 2006 tax return obtained by The Associated Press details $17.6 million in assets, much of that believed to be the value of a 38-acre proposed site.

L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first black elected governor, had originally tapped powerful friends like Bill Cosby and Ben Vereen. Unfortunately, Museum director Vonita Foster told a reporter that she is unsure of current finances.

"The money was just flowing in at one point," Foster said. "But then it just stopped after Katrina" as people focused on hurricane relief efforts. At the same time, Foster said museum officials had to pay an army of consultants and exhibit designers.

"We have blueprints, we have drawings, we have exhibit designs," she said. "... We are at a point where we can actually begin building because of all the money we have spent," she said. "And it's not cheap."

When contacted by the AP, neither developer Silver Companies nor architect C.C. Pei could say when the museum would open. Oh dear. That doesn't sound good. They better hurry. A $500 million National Museum of African American History and Culture, part of the Smithsonian, is planned to open in 2015 about an hour north, in Washington.

Bush budget rewards Smithsonian but cuts PBS

I've been digging through the scary $3.1 trillion budget proposal Bush presented recently. Not surprisingly, the Republicans put a lot of domestic programs on the chopping block.

However, the Smithsonian Institution, the largest of the cultural accounts in the federal budget, received a proposed overall increase of $33.8 million in the 2009 budget request the White House.

It looked like the Smithsonian's budget would be trimmed, as politicians warned the institution that it needed to shape up. But despite the turmoil, the Smithsonian received $682.6 million for fiscal 2008, which ends in October. That was a $47 million increase from the previous year. Yesterday's proposal for fiscal 2009 is a response to pleas from Smithsonian officials that more help is needed to reduce a backlog of repairs that totals $2.5 billion. The proposal includes $128 million for facilities, up from $105.4 million in 2008. That includes continued funding for improvements at the National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo. In another category, the budget proposal gives the Smithsonian $69.1 million for maintenance, a boost from $51.4 million in 2008.

The budget proposal wasn't too kind in its recommendation for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting:

In another proposal, President Bush recommended substantial cuts in the 2009 and 2010 budgets of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He proposed eliminating $200 million from the already approved $400 million for 2009 and $220 million from the $420 million passed by Congress for 2010. The CPB, which oversees and funds public radio and other public broadcasting operations, gets funding allocations several years in advance, although those can be changed. For the past eight years, Congress has overridden the president's cuts and restored full funding.

Looks like we're going to try harder for the 9th straight year to override those cuts again. Although, with all this fighting... it reminds me to ask... "What would Mr. Rogers do?"

Baltimore aquarium bonds are downgraded

I know of a lot of nonprofits who have used bonds to raise money in recent years. There can be some real advantages for Boards who are looking to raise funds using the tax advantages of bonds... but what happens if those bonds get downgraded?

Aaron Cahall at The Examiner explains the impact such a downgrade had on the Baltimore Aquarium:

Last month, Fitch Ratings downgraded its rating for the aquarium’s approximately $34 million in bonds to “BBB+” from “A+”, citing the attraction’s diminished liquid assets and declining attendance. In early September, Moody’s Investors Service lowered its rating on the bonds from A3 to A2, and both firms held a negative outlook at the lower levels.

The institution has $23 million on hand, which is down from previous years... and it needs to find a way to push for new fundraising opportunities.

Contributions and grants totaled $9,532,193, or 23 percent of the aquarium’s $41.7 million budget last year, according to its 2006 annual report. Approximately 50 percent of the aquarium’s revenue comes from admissions, said Molly Foyle, director of media relations for the aquarium, with 30 percent from gift shop and on-site revenues and 20 percent from city, state and private contributions.

To be honest, I don't think this is going to be the only group that has their bond ratings lowered over the next few months.

Smithsonian exceeds fundraising goal by more than 20 percent

The Smithsonian Institution surprised some skeptics on Monday by announcing they received about $140 million in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 - up from $132 million last year and about $25 million over its goal of $115 million.

Acting Secretary Cristian Samper said it was welcome news after a year when the Smithsonian saw lots of embarrassing coverage over the resignation of former Secretary Lawrence Small over questionable spending and excessive compensation.

I wish more nonprofits held public board meetings. Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said the board expects to start holding at least one open meeting each year to hear from the public.

...but were the fundraisers surprised? Not really.

No matter how serious the problems were at the Smithsonian, I think most direct mail consultants would tell you that the press from a story like this has a negligible impact on low dollar donors. Workplace giving and special events probably went on as planned.

Scandals are not likely to impact the death rate of your donors - so planned giving was probably safe. In fact, I think any major donor fundraiser worth his/her salt should be able to use the scandal to their advantage.

I guess institutional giving from foundations and corporates could be vulnerable fundraising programs for other groups that experience such turmoil, but with the caliber of exhibitions at the Smithsonian they probably did fine as well.

Let's see if we can encourage someone from the Development staff at the Smithsonian to weigh in on our comment section below on why they were so damn successful. Maybe their goal was too low...?