It was lovely to see lots of volunteers at the annual party last Friday – a particularly memorable evening from my point of view as it was the last time I would attend this event as Chairman. It is a wonderful opportunity for me on behalf of the trustees and for the staff to say thank you to all our volunteers for the magnificent contribution they make towards the well being of this great museum. As I have frequently said over the years I have been Chairman, without our volunteers our museum would not exist.
But is it also true to say that without money it wouldn’t exist either. However many hours our volunteers put in we still need some staff and they have to be paid, we need to pay for various services like electricity and insurance, and things like publicity, computers, and other bits of essential equipment. What we earn from our visitors isn’t enough to cover all our financial needs and as we are not in receipt of regular funding from either local or national government we have to make up the shortfall by fundraising. In the first ten years of our existence we raised about £2million and last autumn at a big dinner attended by HRH the Princess Royal we launched our new appeal for the next ten years in which we hope to double our earlier efforts and raise £4million.
This is a big challenge, but made considerably easier thanks to a pledge we have received from a couple who wish to remain anonymous who have undertaken to match every pound we raise with another pound from them up to a total of £1million. With gift aid the pledge is worth £1.25million! Our hope is that we will be able to develop an endowment fund with the money to provide a regular income which will help close the gap between our income and our expenditure so that our long term future is secure. The quicker we raise money the quicker we can build the endowment fund and the quicker we can start enjoying the income from it.
Raising money for something like the museum can be difficult. Compared with the charities aimed at supporting those with various unpleasant diseases, those aimed at funding research to eliminate those diseases, those aimed at alleviating suffering of any kind our appeal is more limited. That isn’t to say we don’t have a case but it isn’t of universal relevance. I believe this place matters because it celebrates aspects of our marine heritage which is fundamental to our island story, it matters to Falmouth, to Cornwall and the nation. Our boats allow our visitors the chance to dream, of messing about on the river, of sailing away over the horizon to goodness knows where, and our museum matters because some 250 people are directly involved with it and those people matter. You will each have your reasons to love the place. So can you help? All donations, however small, make a difference, particularly now that they will be worth more than double thanks to the pledge. Alternatively consider leaving a legacy – you don’t have to re-write your will – a codicil will do the trick. Linda Frost or Naomi Belert can give you the details.
Although I give up as Chairman at the end of the month I won’t be swallowing my anchor completely. ‘Trustee’ will remain on the pontoon and I will continue to serve on our fund raising committee, so I will be in and out of the museum but perhaps not quite as often as in the past. I will miss being directly involved but I feel I can now hand over to my successor with a clear conscience – our finances are in better shape than they have ever been. I wish the museum and all involved with it all the very best for the future.
