BMHS launches Givecloud

THE Barbados Museum and Historical Society virtually launched Givecloud, a new membership and giving platform, which will allow members and donors to pay for memberships and make donations to the Museum online.

The online launch of this donation avenue places the Museum as one of the first non profits who will be instituting such a platform on island. President of the Museum, Sir Trevor Carmichael, welcomed the establishments of the portal, and said that in recent times, there had been calls for such an avenue to donate to the society.

“Let me assure you that we have answered the call of members and donors as to how we could fine a more convenient or easier way to make donations. I think through MasterCard and Visa and how we could do this from the comfort of our homes, not having to leave.”

Sir Trevor also highlighted that members of the Society had been asking awhile before the general public and the society had even received many requests from visitors who wished to have the option of championing their favourite cause or organise a fundraiser to benefit of the museum.

“We are now launching into the public so that the public as a whole can support history, and support heritage, and support culture. And by doing that, obviously, by supporting the Barbados Museum and Historical Society,” said Sir Trevor.

Development Co-ordinator, Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Rhiannon Estwick, explained that the development and release of the online platform had taken approximately a year including the research process.

“There was a lot of discernment, trying to decide what was going to be the best option for the Barbados Museum, what was going to be the most affordable, what (platform) would of course take everything in Barbados dollars because what we want you to do is make sure that our Barbadian donors did not have to pay a foreign exchange fee for donations,” she said.

According to Estwick, the first research process took about three months, after which came the process of getting the site created and ensuring that the Society was meeting all bank protocols and then finally integrating everything together.

“I think I think that was also partially because we were new to the process so it took longer than I think it really would have if we had done it before, so it took some time to get everything up and running.”

Kevin Farmer, Deputy Director of the Barbados Museum, offered remarks at the launch and said that he was extremely happy that in its 88th year, the Museum continued to grow, expand and engage with the community.

“One of the ways that we are looking to make that access and experience easier, especially for those who are quite busy and these times with more and more being done online, is to ensure that the Museum becomes that seamless place where you can engage with and not only learn about Barbadian history but to find ways in which you members can continue to support us in our day-to-day activity and our programming.”

Chair of the Development Committee, Justin Oran, gave an overview of the portal, which can be accessed using https://barbadosmuseum.givecloud.co/. He highlighted various features and showcased the options which people who signed up on the site had access to, in order to make their donations, present their gifts or schedule their fund-raising events. (AS)