individual sectors we serve. We also wanted to learn how organizations adapted to those changes, both strategically and structurally. We found a number of clear trends across nonprofits in general. With regard to museums, what we found is that these trends were exaggerated, both positively and negatively, compared to other sectors. Specifically, we saw the following. Museums saw more drastic fundraising swings, both positive and negative, than the nonprofit sector as a whole. For museums overall, 50% saw their fundraising increase by more than 5% in 2020. That compares favorably with 47% of nonprofits overall. Conversely, 40% of museums saw their fundraising decrease by more than 5%, significantly worse than 29% of nonprofits overall. Museums matched the other sectors at improving
individual giving, but also saw greater declines in corporate support. Half of all museums (50%) saw an increase in individual giving in 2020, versus 47% of nonprofits overall. Trends in foundation funding and government funding were towards increases in all sectors and largely mirrored each other, most due to emergency grants and PPP loans. However, museums saw drastic swings in corporate funding, with 60% reporting funding staying flat or declining. Seventy-four percent of nonprofits reported corporate funding staying flat or declining, so museums can perhaps take solace that they outperformed nonprofits as a whole, but we believe this is a trend that will affect all organizations for the next several years. We’ll say more about this later. Most organizations surveyed were not in a campaign prior to the pandemic; museums were more 61
