Digital Funding and Financing in Museums and Cultural Heritage

Abstract Museums and cultural heritage have mostly relied on traditional forms of financial support, such as public subsidies, philanthropy, sponsorships, and patronage. This chapter critically contributes a current and prospective mapping of innovative models of funding and financing that leverage the latest digital technologies and are being adopted in the museum and heritage sector. Models are illustrated by means of real-world cases, which expand beyond global flagship museums, and focus on smaller museums. Evidence points to a yet unestablished range of digital financial models, spanning crowdfunding, digital payments, contactless donations, tokenised rewards, NFTs, and blockchain technology. These models are adopted to different extents, with funding prevailing over financing. Overall, adopted models confirm a wealth of benefits and rewards beyond the monetary ones.