Museums, like other nonprofit organizations, have struggled in the past few years to maintain their programs in face of a weak economy and a rapid drop in tourism after September 11th, especially in markets highly dependent on international travel. Furthermore, cultural institutions face the additional challenges of justifying their mission in a time when human services and disaster relief are deemed more critical, and of combating the misconception that they are elitist institutions with hefty endowments. Slaying the Financial Dragon, published by the American Association of Museums (AAM), addresses these issues and proposes innovative ways to confront these obstacles successfully.

The book is divided into 10 articles to help museums develop comprehensive and long-term fundraising plans that fall beyond the scope of traditional fundraising techniques. Taken from the AAM's "Slaying the Financial Dragon" seminar that took place in November 2002, the articles are based on the presentations of experts in the areas of individual and corporate giving; earned income and investment; tourism; and state and local funding. Most of the authors give extensive analyses of economic factors that affect museum funding, yet manage to use real-life case studies to illustrate a point.

Although the authors represent different sectors, they note museums need to interact more with their communities, build alliances with businesses and local government, use their resources to earn income in less traditional ways, and diversify their fundraising mix. In the first chapter, Edward Able, the president and CEO of AAM, an organization dedicated to promoting excellence within museums, discusses the importance of building partnerships with local communities to garner further support and of redefining how museums could benefit their communities in their outreach efforts. In the following chapter, the President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals explores the impact of the economy and recent events on fundraising trends. She analyzes the challenges faced by nonprofits, which include stiffer competition for funding, the demand for greater accountability, changing demographics of donors, and increased government regulation.

The third article presents an overview of business giving to arts institutions by Judith Jedlicka, President of Business Committee for the Arts. She suggests means by which museums can educate the commercial sector to understand the economic benefits that cultural institutions give to their communities, and develop methods for networking with small businesses, a group frequently overlooked by fundraisers. The next three chapters cover funding trends in city, county and state funding, and provide tips on explaining to public officials how funding museums would benefit their constituents. The following section deals with trends affecting tourism and how museums can adapt to changes in the tourism industry.

In a later chapter, Douglass W. McDonald, the president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal shares innovative ways of optimizing museum income and investments, and assessing the profitability of programs. Witold Ostrenko, director of the Museum of Science & Industry explains strategies that his institution took that expanded the museum from 300 members and 90,000 visits in 1988 to it current levels of 48,000 members and 645,000 visitors in a following section. Under his tutelage, the museum also inaugurated a Head Start program and collaborated with local public schools to create academic programs at the museum. In the last chapter, John E. Rorer of the New York Botanical Garden discusses how the institution revamped its funding mix and developed a new business plan to ensure its survival in spite of declining government and private support. Changes under his administration included restructuring an endowment gift with a donor's input to revamp the dining facility to augment earned income.

To assist museums, the AAM added appendices that have resources to provide more concrete guidance about improving fundraising and ties to the community. The Business Committee for the Arts contributed statistics to help museum fundraisers build a case for businesses to support their museums and suggest unique ways small companies can sustain the arts. There is a financial analysis worksheet for evaluating an organization's financial condition. Lastly, a bibliography is provided for further investigation.

In general, Slaying the Financial Dragonpresents a compelling case to museums to rethink their fundraising methods and their roles in their communities. Furthermore, the authors recommend unusual alliances with other agencies, which can result in enormous benefits for the institutions and for the community. There is room for improvement. Some of the economic forecasting found in the book for 2003 is a little outdated. The section on tourism, while very informative, could have better demonstrated the impact of tourism trends specifically on museums. However, the book does an excellent job of providing strategies to help museums survive through the 21st century.

For citations to additional materials on this topic, refer to Literature of the Nonprofit Sector Online, using the subject heading "Museums."