Designing sustainable funding models with community-based archives, and increasing funding streams to these organizations.

The Challenge

Community-based archives hold some of the most valuable materials documenting the lives of marginalized people and they mostly exist independently of other traditional academic or government-run cultural heritage institutions. But while these archives continue to collect and preserve these histories, many of them face difficulties growing their operations, keeping their doors open, and enhancing their programming and collections activities because of a lack of funding opportunities. How can we directly address funding issues for community-based archives?

Our Approach

We convened a representative group of archivists to study opportunities for and barriers to developing sustainable funding models for community-based archives. Utilizing our Community-Centered Design approach, we explored ideas for how to overcome barriers and scale solutions.

Stats and Impact

• 40 archivists from US, Europe, and New Zealand participated

• 4 funding partners represented

• 2 days of conversations documented

• Collaborative whitepaper and partnership suggestions produced on supporting community-based archives

• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation created new $2.2m funding stream for community-based archives as a result of this research

Tools and Methods

• Community-Centered Design

• Systems Change

• Utilized Storybox for trust and team building

• Convenings & Meeting Planning