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Let's say museum has $2M budget w/$5M endowment. In a stable market, that endowment adds $200K/year for operations. If the museum takes 250K out to pay salaries/benefits for 3 months w/tanking market, it's actually cut $ for future use on hopes things will improve in a year. 1/3
But let's say, the museum furloughs staff now when there's more gov't support. This retains staff for longer term and endowment. It allows more time for thoughtful planning for employee and museum... or it could be kicking the can further along. 2/3
The problem w/both scenarios is we have no clue what it will look like on the other side of this. Is the market responding & correcting? Will visitors still come when health concerns persist? Will be ppl be willing to discretionary spend when they've lost jobs? We don't know. 3/3
PS. I'm simply thinking out loud. Each org needs to assess what's best for them. I'm trying to lay bare the issues our field faces. I'm also weary of talking about the behemoth orgs which are a tiny % of how most of us work. Even in this example, this is the upper 60% of museums.
