How to fund climate change action in cultural heritage

An exclusive interview with Ki Culture. What did they have to do to get to where they are today?

Hey friend!

Here I am again with a new article on a topic and an organisation you may have heard about before.

Unless you’ve been away being free in a place with no internet and communications or if you’re just not in the field, you’ve probably gathered that climate change and sustainability in museums are all the rage lately.

In fact, it is such a hot topic, that this year’s theme for International Museum Day is Museums, Sustainability and Well-being.

Well in keeping with this theme, I come to you this month with an exclusive article on Ki Culture!

Too long didn’t read: (Time is precious, I know!), you can go to the article now:

An exclusive interview

If you have no idea what Ki Culture is, here’s its mission statement.

Ki Culture is committed to the integration of sustainability into culture through the inside-outside model: by making the cultural sector sustainable (environmentally, socially, and economically) and use culture to educate our audiences, our communities and the general public on sustainability.

Early in January 2023, I was lucky to be able to have a private interview with Caitlin Southwick, Founder, and CEO of Ki Culture.

I didn’t ask her why she founded Ki Culture or how in the world she managed to meet President Clinton when she was 8 years old. (I know, right?!).

I only asked her about the stuff I hadn’t already read about or heard in a podcast. So now you can hear about that too. For example,

• Why is it called Ki Culture? What’s Ki?

• What was the biggest surprise you got when you talked to museums about sustainable options?

• How are you funded? (Spoiler alert: She really put her money where her mouth is for several years - find out how many.)

• What were your biggest costs as a non-profit?

• So… are you a non-profit or a for-profit? Why?

• What are the biggest BUTs you have received when you talk about addressing climate change in museums?

• How should someone contact you if they want to collaborate?

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The more you know

I hope you enjoy the article that came out of this interview. Some of the things I found out while writing it:

• what a pain it is to try to get funding as a non-profit

• that nature has a pronoun

• that an institution can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year with an investment of about $20,000

• that donations come with a screening price tag

Be good!

xx

Angelica

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Let me know in the comments if you would like to see more of these types of articles or I might stop and go write something else instead.

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