Unhappy Donors - Museum Professional Forums, News, Jobs, Articles, Books

cynthia5986 · 04-16-2008, 10:49 PM

Hi,
I am looking for feedback on how to deal with donors who become angry or upset over having their possible donations rejected. It is very difficult to tell donors that their precious items may not fit a museum's mission statement/collecting scope but it is EXTREMELY difficult when these individuals become angry or upset.
Suggestions on how to handle these kind of sticky situations would be greatly appreciated!

adjutant · 04-22-2008, 06:04 PM

Cynthia,

What has helped me in the past is to establish a detailed process where no one person has the ability to say yes or no. Temporarily accept the item, have a trained committee of staff and/or volunteers review all items and make decisions based upon your written and board approved collections policies. If your policies require board approval of items, then the final decision is theirs.

Keep your decisions/recommendations consistent and then notify the potential donor of the decision. When you explain that a committee reviews all donations it shows that the organization takes the process seriously and avoids the potential of someone having to face the potential donor at the initial contact moment with a negative reply.

If the item is potentially needed by another museum and you have the ability, offer to help them find a different location. This worked for us when the item was not relevant to our county, but we knew which county it should go to. That does not help if the item is basically trash. You would never want to accept something that could harm your collection even on a temporary basis, but that hopefully is not your issue.

Good Luck!
James

robynnedexter · 06-28-2008, 03:03 PM

Our collections manager will usually lay out in the earliest conversations what it is we are looking for. If the person says that they want to donate something that we have 112 of, he will always blame the regulation. "Gosh, I'd really love to have those, but we have regulations on how much of (insert item we have 112 of) and I know that we are pretty close to that. Now, your scrapbook (or whatever), I'd be most interested in..." and sort of deflect onto the positive. If it is something that we simply are not interested in, he just says so. "I am so pleased that you thought of us, but at this time, storage is so tight that we simply dont have room to care for it as it should be. You know, there is WIMSA, and..." then lists off several other organizations. I think the trick is to let them know that you would want it to be cared for appropriately, and simply dont have the space, time, staff, whatever, to do so, and it really is best to go to another organization.

Hope that helped.

Robynne

jgoreham · 11-26-2008, 08:13 PM

I worry about this sometimes, and a tactic that has worked well for me has been to call the donor up and say "thanks so much, but it isn't really right for our institution- but I know museum XYZ would love to have it! I'd be happy to pass it along to them for their activities if it's all right with you." (after already having discussed it with said museum's representatives, of course). I think some donors just want their items to go to an institution, any institution- not necessarily yours/mine (in my experience, inappropriate donations have ended up here simply because our museum is closer to their house then whatever other museum I've thought of).

saralu · 03-27-2009, 06:08 PM

There's a lot to having a nice, firm, WRITTEN collections policy. Then you can just explain that it doesn't fit with that policy. And you can give them a copy if they'd like.

James gave some great advice -- blame it on your board!

I really do feel your pain -- we have people in the community who have blacklisted us for this very reason. They told one of our employees that they will never go here again because we didn't take something!

Distant Dreamer · 04-25-2009, 03:24 AM

James has the best advice...if you can, head them off at the pass. Under past administrations, our museum was accepting anything that came in the door for a long time; the result being a MAJOR lack of space. The director and myself have now instituted an "Accession Review" policy. Whenever anyone brings anything in, we explain to them in detail how the policy works and answer any questions that they have about it. After the committee reviews the items, we contact the potential donors about it and have them either come back in and sign the forms (if it's accepted) or take the item back (if it's rejected). We've been using the accession review policy since the first of the year, and so far we haven't had a problem with angry people when things weren't accepted.

As a back up, when we reject and item I always tell them the reasons behind the rejection (i.e. it would be unethical for us to take it when we can't properly care for it because of lack of funds/space/staff/etc) and try to suggest other institutions that may want the item.

Sidecar · 08-03-2009, 11:22 PM

Upsetting potential artifact donors is a very minor concern in my world. What is actually a big concern is past donors returning years later and claiming that they let the museum "borrow" some of their things and that they had come to pick them up--despite all of the signed donor paperwork.

That type of nonsense makes me very reluctant to accept anything in the first place as I worry about what happens ten or fifteen years from now--even though the donor paperwork is signed. I much prefer telling somebody "No thank you" today so that I can guarantee I don't have to deal with them in ten years when they change their mind or need stuff to sell on e-bay.

04-16-2008, 10:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
cynthia5986 New Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Orlando, Florida/USA Posts: 1	Unhappy Donors Hi, I am looking for feedback on how to deal with donors who become angry or upset over having their possible donations rejected. It is very difficult to tell donors that their precious items may not fit a museum's mission statement/collecting scope but it is EXTREMELY difficult when these individuals become angry or upset. Suggestions on how to handle these kind of sticky situations would be greatly appreciated!

04-22-2008, 06:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
adjutant New Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Rochester MN Posts: 1	Angry donors reply Cynthia, What has helped me in the past is to establish a detailed process where no one person has the ability to say yes or no. Temporarily accept the item, have a trained committee of staff and/or volunteers review all items and make decisions based upon your written and board approved collections policies. If your policies require board approval of items, then the final decision is theirs. Keep your decisions/recommendations consistent and then notify the potential donor of the decision. When you explain that a committee reviews all donations it shows that the organization takes the process seriously and avoids the potential of someone having to face the potential donor at the initial contact moment with a negative reply. If the item is potentially needed by another museum and you have the ability, offer to help them find a different location. This worked for us when the item was not relevant to our county, but we knew which county it should go to. That does not help if the item is basically trash. You would never want to accept something that could harm your collection even on a temporary basis, but that hopefully is not your issue. Good Luck! James

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06-28-2008, 03:03 PM	#3 (permalink)
robynnedexter New Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3	Our collections manager will usually lay out in the earliest conversations what it is we are looking for. If the person says that they want to donate something that we have 112 of, he will always blame the regulation. "Gosh, I'd really love to have those, but we have regulations on how much of (insert item we have 112 of) and I know that we are pretty close to that. Now, your scrapbook (or whatever), I'd be most interested in..." and sort of deflect onto the positive. If it is something that we simply are not interested in, he just says so. "I am so pleased that you thought of us, but at this time, storage is so tight that we simply dont have room to care for it as it should be. You know, there is WIMSA, and..." then lists off several other organizations. I think the trick is to let them know that you would want it to be cared for appropriately, and simply dont have the space, time, staff, whatever, to do so, and it really is best to go to another organization. Hope that helped. Robynne

11-26-2008, 08:13 PM	#4 (permalink)
jgoreham New Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Halifax, NS Canada Posts: 5	I worry about this sometimes, and a tactic that has worked well for me has been to call the donor up and say "thanks so much, but it isn't really right for our institution- but I know museum XYZ would love to have it! I'd be happy to pass it along to them for their activities if it's all right with you." (after already having discussed it with said museum's representatives, of course). I think some donors just want their items to go to an institution, any institution- not necessarily yours/mine (in my experience, inappropriate donations have ended up here simply because our museum is closer to their house then whatever other museum I've thought of).

03-27-2009, 06:08 PM	#5 (permalink)
saralu New Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 4	There's a lot to having a nice, firm, WRITTEN collections policy. Then you can just explain that it doesn't fit with that policy. And you can give them a copy if they'd like. James gave some great advice -- blame it on your board! I really do feel your pain -- we have people in the community who have blacklisted us for this very reason. They told one of our employees that they will never go here again because we didn't take something!

04-25-2009, 03:24 AM	#6 (permalink)
Distant Dreamer New Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Kansas Posts: 2	James has the best advice...if you can, head them off at the pass. Under past administrations, our museum was accepting anything that came in the door for a long time; the result being a MAJOR lack of space. The director and myself have now instituted an "Accession Review" policy. Whenever anyone brings anything in, we explain to them in detail how the policy works and answer any questions that they have about it. After the committee reviews the items, we contact the potential donors about it and have them either come back in and sign the forms (if it's accepted) or take the item back (if it's rejected). We've been using the accession review policy since the first of the year, and so far we haven't had a problem with angry people when things weren't accepted. As a back up, when we reject and item I always tell them the reasons behind the rejection (i.e. it would be unethical for us to take it when we can't properly care for it because of lack of funds/space/staff/etc) and try to suggest other institutions that may want the item.

08-03-2009, 11:22 PM	#7 (permalink)
Sidecar New Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Tucson, Arizona Posts: 3	Upsetting potential artifact donors is a very minor concern in my world. What is actually a big concern is past donors returning years later and claiming that they let the museum "borrow" some of their things and that they had come to pick them up--despite all of the signed donor paperwork. That type of nonsense makes me very reluctant to accept anything in the first place as I worry about what happens ten or fifteen years from now--even though the donor paperwork is signed. I much prefer telling somebody "No thank you" today so that I can guarantee I don't have to deal with them in ten years when they change their mind or need stuff to sell on e-bay.