Resurrecting an institution through the power of story: Singapore’s new natural history museum (A)

• Main Author: CHONG, Mark
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Natural History Museum; Fundraising; The Power of a Story; Singapore; Donations; Public-Private Partnerships; Communication; Raffles; Business and Corporate Communications; Public Relations and Advertising
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/35; https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/2751
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In December 2009, Professor Peter Ng, director of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR), was issued a challenge – raise S$25 million in the next seven months to fund the establishment of a natural history museum in Singapore. Raising the money needed to resurrect the museum in the midst of a global financial meltdown seemed like an impossibly tall order for Ng. To complicate matters, donations for natural history or science-related causes were virtually unheard of in the country. The A case offers the dilemma of how to raise the funds for a new natural history museum in Singapore.