The second seminar in the “Cultural Marketing: Diversification of Resources” series, arranged by the Aksenov Family Foundation, the Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantine Sorokin Foundation, and the Avesta Group took place in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) on 5 – 6 February, 2015, and was devoted to strategic planning. Christophe Monin, the Director of the Sponsorship and Development Department in the Philharmonie de Paris and former Head (up to 2014) of the respective department in the Louvre was appointed lecturer.
Already enrolled in the series, the cultural institutions: the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Moscow, Museum of Contemporary Art “Garage”, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the V—A–C Foundation, the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, etc. were joined this time by the Gogol-Center, the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, and the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art.
The seminar focused on developing a fundraising strategy and stages of communication activity that it passes through. The first day passed in a conventional lecture format.
Monin presented the methodology of a fundraising campaign, described various approaches to fundraising and reasons dictating its choice, analysed timing features depending on the campaign plan and touched upon sensitive issues of institution and project branding. Having shared a word with invited active donors and professional fundraisers, he spoke on the proper ways of negotiating with patrons and potential sponsors and on how to integrate their expectations into a fundraising campaign.
The second day offered case studies, part of which were based on real projects in need for financial support, like the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art or the tour of the MusicAeterna orchestra. In the course of sessions, which were moderated and assessed by Christophe Monin and his colleagues from the Avesta Group, four presentations potentially capable of bringing funds to a cultural project were delivered. There was a chance to compare them with campaigns from international practice, including projects by the Louvre, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and others on which Monin spoke the day before.
The series of seminars conceived by the Aksenov Family Foundation, the Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantine Sorokin Foundation and the Avesta Group reveals the best cases in fundraising from international experience and helps build effective strategies – from attracting cultural investments to fostering creative communities. It also forestalls the launch of an initiative on a larger scale – the foundation of the Cultural Management Institute with a focus on developing a new community of highly skilled specialists in cultural management in Russia.
