A stable and well-managed endowment can be the key to a museum's financial strength. But how do you establish and maintain an endowment that is right for your organization and its future? With easily accessible language and case studies of real museums to illuminate major points, Endowment Essentials for Museums provides guidance on the establishment and oversight of endowments, including how to: Plan for and build an endowment fund Create opportunities to grow the endowment through fundraising and investment management Incorporate endowment management into institutional planning Foster transparency and shared knowledge about endowments between staff, trustees, and community members Evaluate and modify endowments accurately and according to best practices. Attending to endowment management at all stages, incorporating references from across the nonprofit spectrum, and designed to resonate with readers from a variety of backgrounds, Endowment Essentials for Museums invites forward-thinking museum professionals, trustees, and volunteers to enhance their knowledge about the endowments and the integral role it plays in the health of your museum.
Rebekah Beaulieu is the author of Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and has been a museum professional for almost twenty years, with experience in civic museums, academic museums, and historic sites. Rebekah currently serves as the Director of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and previously worked as the Associate Director at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine and as the inaugural Executive Director of the Winchester Historical Society and the Sanborn House Historical and Cultural Center in Winchester, Massachusetts. Rebekah has extensive experience in nonprofit financial management, fundraising, and board relations and has presented workshops on grant writing and fiscal sustainability in historic sites. In addition to her professional experience, Rebekah holds a B.A. in American Studies and Art History from The George Washington University, an M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an M.A. in Arts Administration from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in American and New England Studies from Boston University. Rebekah is a board member of the New England Museum Association, a trustee of Connecticut Humanities, and active in the American Alliance of Museums as a certified Accreditation/MAP Reviewer and as a board member of the Historic Houses and Sites Network. She serves as a grant reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities, and sits on the faculty of the History Leadership Seminar of the American Association of State and Local History.
