Does anyone out there have any experience with corporate sponsorships,
endowments or grants for historic sites? Is it a common form of funding
for sites, particularly those run by non-profit boards? Or is it
something that has not been pursued? If not, why?
I have discussed approaches to funding and revenue generation with a
number of individual sites in Canada, the US and England, but so far,
have not come across any that pursue corporations as sources of funds.
Have I just not talked to the right ones? Most seem to use historical
societies or other non-profit types of groups to generate revenues or
make donations.
In Canada, in an era of rapidly shrinking public dollars,
nonprofit groups are having to look elsewhere, for both operating and
 development
funds. Also, I'm wondering if anyone is aware of coporate sponsorship for
historical archaeological work specifically?
 
Thanks for alll the responses to my previous posting regarding work on
east coast Newfoundland.
We are now having an interesting debate about the Ferryland site (which
relates in a way to the ongoing debate on this list about historical
archaeology vs archaeology) and whether or not the history that the site
represents and the interesting aspects of this history that we might like
to see interpreted should to some extent dictate the archaeological
research, or......
whether it is the archaeological research program that should in a sense
lead the interpretation of historical aspects of the site. Does this make
sense to anyone? How have others resolved similar types of situations?
 
I await your replies.
Mary Bishop
St. John's, Newfoundland