Fundraising at the Museum
Not many people realise that the Black Country Living Museum is a registered charity which is supported by a Development Trust whose role is to promote the Museum’s work by encouraging donations from individuals, companies and charitable trusts.
Unlike many museums, the Black Country Living Museum does not receive any core funding from central government; all we receive is a small revenue contribution from one of the four Black Country local authorities which is used to meet our running costs. This means that when the Museum wishes to expand - for example to create new industrial heritage displays or when it is called upon to save historic buildings from demolition - it must raise the money in order to do this.
Over the last 30 years the Museum has been very successful, raising to date in excess of £10m from a wide range of sources - traditional Black Country industries often connected to the work of the Museum, major charitable trusts such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and private individuals. When we relocated our last major project, the Rolfe Street Baths, gifts were received from a number of organisations including: Carnegie UK Trust; the Hayward Foundation; Rubery Owen Holdings Ltd; the Wolfson Foundation as well as Dudley MBC and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Charitable trusts, foundations, multi-national and national companies all play an increasingly important role in fundraising but this is not to forget that the Museum remains at heart a community museum actively supported by local Black Country people, who donate not only items from their working lives, but also their stories and memories. The Museum is also helped by a vibrant Friends scheme who take part in the fundraising effort, especially when new capital developments are planned.
So if you want the Black Country Living Museum to be able to continue to preserve the heritage and landscape of our region or you want to help the Museum give new life to historic buildings, which will tell our visitors more about the past of this proud region, then find out how you can help today.
How you can help:
Make a donation today:
Please make cheques payable to Black Country Living Museum and send into the Streets Ahead campaign office. Don’t forget to sign a Gift Aid form, if you are a UK tax payer.
Sponsor a brick:
Help the Black Country Living Museum preserve Hobbs Fried Fish Shop. Download the form and make your donation now!
Sponsorship:
Many of the Museum’s working exhibits need the support of companies and businesses, to enable these to run. At the moment we are seeking a corporate sponsor for the Newcomen Steam Engine, the world’s first device to harness the power of steam which kicked off the industrial revolution- could this be you? But there are plenty of other areas that require help, contact the Streets Ahead campaign office for more information.
Leave a legacy gift:
Could you become a Guardian of the Black Country Living Museum and help make all the difference to the future of our past?
Guardians are people who are committed to helping the Museum preserve something of the past for future generations; Guardians have pride in this region, they want to celebrate and commemorate all the Black Country’s many achievements. But what is more, Guardians are those friends and supporters who have made gifts to our endowment fund - a pool of funds invested to provide an income used to help the Museum meet its future needs.
Why do we need an endowment fund?
We need an endowment fund to ensure that the Museum can use your gift where and when it is most needed by:
- preserving more historical buildings threatened with demolition;
- maintaining and properly caring for our exhibits and collections, some of which are rare and are virtually irreplaceable;
- continuing to educate visitors as to the importance of the Black Country and its industrial heritage;
- meeting any emergency challenges that the Museum may face.
