In Workshops

Successful Fundraising for Heritage Managers: Strategies and Best Practices

On March 17-19, 2023, a three-day online workshop on “Successful Fundraising for Heritage Managers: Strategies and Best Practices” was held, aimed at equipping heritage managers with fundraising skills and strategies to start-up and build their organizations’ contributed revenue for increased impact in the world. The workshop had 13 participants from Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Sudan), Asia (India), and Europe (Greece, Norway, Serbia, United Kingdom), who were trained on fundraising best practices.

Throughout the workshop, participants learned the best practices on fundraising and how to apply them to create a case for support and a letter of inquiry for their own organization or project. The participants brought to the workshop various projects that they wanted to raise funds for.

These included:

The Dye House at NMEC,Egypt
• Prosfygika Project, Squatted Monuments in the city center of Athens, Greece
• Creating a Cultural Trail for a Regeneration Site in East London, United Kingdom
• Restoration of Stepwells at Penukonda, India
• Documentation and protection of the abundant village of Old Dongola Sudan
• Identification, Documentation and Marketing of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Esna, Egypt
• City Tour Guide’s Capacity Building Training, Ethiopia
• Heritage Interpretation of Prehistoric Sites, Kenya
SEE Heritage Network going strong, Serbia
• Systematic excavation, preservation, and documentation of the Meroitic townsite of Kedurma,
Sudan
• Traditional Farming in the Butana area, ethnoarchaeological study, Sudan
• Rundu Youth Academy of Arts, Namibia
• Fotefar mot nord – Trails to the north, Norway.

The workshop had both asynchronous and live sessions. During the asynchronous sessions, participants prepared for an assignment in advance and were updated with reading material and pre-recorded videos on the Moodle platform. In the live sessions, participants presented their assignments and received feedback from instructors. The live sessions were then followed by lectures from workshop instructors.

Participants were also given free access for one month to GrantStationhttps://grantstation.com/ to look for potential prospects for their project, thanks to GrantStation for kindly providing discounted access to participants. Through the workshop sessions, lectures, case studies, various discussions, and interactive exercises, participants were able to develop and apply strategies in fundraising fundamentals, best practices, ethics, working with executive and voluntary leadership, creating and articulating a compelling case for support prospect research, matching projects with sources of support, matching marketable projects with prospective sources of support, identifying, cultivating and soliciting prospects, personally asking for a contribution, securing foundation and corporate grants, writing a compelling letter of inquiry to an actual potential funder, creating a development plan.

On March 27, the participants had a follow-up tutorial, where they met with their instructors to ask questions and receive guidance on how to improve their final project, which is to write a letter of inquiry for their own project. The workshop was a success as the participants left equipped with the skills and strategies needed to fundraise for their various heritage projects.

Workshop Instructors:

Linda C. Hartley, is principal, H2Growth Strategies and former VP of External Affairs at The
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She taught as an adjunct professor for
12 years at the NYU Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, and is co-author of the
book, Big Impact: Insights & Stories From America’s Non-Profit Leaders. Hartley holds an M.B.A.
in Management from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Jennifer E. Herring, is special advisor, H2Growth Strategies, former President & CEO of the
Maritime Aquarium, and former Senior VP of Development of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Herring currently serves as VP for Development of STEMteachers NYC. She holds an M.A. in
Liberal Studies from SUNY Stony Brook and a certificate in Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit
Management from Harvard Business School.

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