Fundraising opportunities for Science and Technology Museums

The aim of this paper is to analyze the possibilities of private funding for a special kind ofmuseums: science museums and technology centers.In the last years the economic crisis hasimpacted on the cultural sector, decreasing the public resources traditionally allocated to museumsand arts and heritage in general.That has forced art professionals to develop alternative strategies toget the necessary financial support for museum’s activities. Althoughthe crisis has affected alsoprivate companies and individuals,nowadays fundraising from the private sector seems to be themajor alternative to the lack ofpublic funds. I will start this paper analyzing the ethical problems inapplying fundraising and marketing in general to museums and then proceed focusing on the mainprivate sponsors of museums in general (foundations, private corporations and individuals). I willthen concentrate on science museums addressing their peculiarities and characteristics; I will laterdeal with issues related to concrete private sponsorship for this typeof museums. In the conclusion,I will delineate what some of the major future challenges for this sector are