While we’re on the subject of museums, I thought I’d introduce you to Cecilia Meisner, who is the Director of Grants and Government Relations at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). In short, she’s a fundraiser, specializing in writing grants (rather than asking folks like you and me for donations). These grants may come from foundations or government agencies or corporate funding divisions. 

And with a newly renovated contemporary art wing, the BMA can use all of the funds it can get. Naturally, Cecilia uses quite a bit of math in her job. Here’s how.

Can you explain what you do for a living?  I oversee fundraising from foundation, corporate, and government sources to support The Baltimore Museum of Art.  A lot of my work is writing (grant proposals, reports, letters of inquiry or acknowledgement), but I also do a lot of work with creating grant budgets, tracking grant-funded expenses, and reporting back to the funders.

When do you use basic math in your job?  It can be as simple as applying a percentage to a salary to show the value of staff benefits in a grant proposals, and as complicated as tracking hours worked on a project for dozens of employees over the course of two years.

Do you use any technology to help with this math?  I NEVER do math in my head: I always use an old-fashioned adding machine with a paper tape for quick calculations, and I loooove spreadsheet programs for creating budgets and tracking expenses.  The first one I ever used was Lotus 1-2-3 but now I use Excel.  I have been working in this job long enough that I used to use huge binders full of ledger paper to track expenses with pen on paper – hence the need to run a paper tape on everything: they didn’t add up automatically, unlike computerized spreadsheets!

How do you think math helps you do your job better?  Funders don’t want to give money unless they feel secure that it is enough to get the job done, and that the recipient will manage the money carefully.  And since we are audited every year by an outside auditing firm, it is a lot easier to make sure everything is done right the first time, rather than having to go back and make a lot of end-of-year journal entries in the organization’s books.

How comfortable with math do you feel?  I am very comfortable with the math I use in my work: basic functions plus percentages (which a surprising number of people do wrong, I find as I review draft grant budgets).  That being said, I am utterly incapable of helping my 10th grader with his Algebra II/Pre-Calc, Trig, Probability & Statistics, or Physics homework.

What kind of math did you take in high school?  I didn’t take any math after 9th grade “pre-Geometry.”  I was very intimidated by math, and I took enough science courses (Chemistry, Physics, Geology) to fulfill my high school’s joint math/science requirement. Because I got a high enough grade on the ACT test math portion, I was able to exempt out of Freshman Mathematics in college. I didn’t need any additional math as a requirement for my major. I escaped math in high school and college, but it caught up with me in the work world, and it turns out that it isn’t so bad after all! I wish I had Math for Grownups when I was in high school and college – I might not have been so intimidated!

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job? I was totally set with the basic addition-mulitplication-subtraction-division-percentages skills, but I did need to learn how to use spreadsheet and double-entry accounting, and how to use the specific spreadsheet software programs.

Do you have questions about grant writing and administration? If so, ask in the comments section, and I’ll let Cecilia know!

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