Regarding The Hip Hop Museum, Donna Davis has seen it all. As The Museum’s Chief Development Officer, Donna plays a critical role in ensuring funding meets its goals. We connected about her role with The Museum, standout moments over her past thirteen years working on the project, the importance of Microsoft as a partner in The Museum, and more.

Adam Aziz: First, can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do at The Museum?

Donna Davis: My name is Donna Davis, and I am the Chief Development Officer of The Museum. My roles and responsibilities include soup-to-nuts fundraising and some strategic development within the organization. 

AA: What has been the most challenging aspect of securing funding around The Museum?

DD: When it comes to fundraising, I would never use the word challenging. I wouldn’t use that word because it’s all about matching the mission with the funder’s desires or the funder itself. I’ve been involved in all aspects of fundraising for the institution. Initially, people didn’t see The Museum as a reality. People saw it as pie in the sky. When funders like Microsoft and the City of New York saw it as a viable project, the trajectory of our fundraising changed. What’s important is getting people to know that we are the official record of Hip Hop.

But we’re going to offer so much more on a local, national, and international level. Having people buy into it, I believe our fundraising will always keep The Museum’s doors open. However, as we get to the finish line, our ultimate goal is to ensure that the organization not only opens its doors at the scheduled time but remains sustainable. 

AA: You’ve been involved with The Museum for thirteen years. Has there been a standout moment for you?

DD: There are so many things to name. We’ve done great work without even having a brick-and-mortar Museum open. I think some of the standout moments are having those achievements with programming without a brick-and-mortar and weathering through the pandemic when the original [R]Evolution of Hip Hop exhibit opened up.

To me, standout moments are being part of a dedicated, passionate, intelligent team and doing it not just for the culture but because they understand the vital importance of making sure that history is told respectfully and accurately.   

AA: How did Microsoft become such a vital partner in The Museum? It seems like a company like that would have so many options of where to put their dollars.

DD: They believed in the vision. We are very lucky and blessed to have a board member who is legal counsel from Microsoft, and with any fundraising, it’s more about people giving to people. So Bruce Jackson’s advocacy for the project really allowed us to solidify that major gift.

Like many technology companies, Microsoft has always been innovative, forward-thinking, and experimental as a corporation. Their alignment with us is all of those things. And if one of the core tenets of their organization is education, we’re a perfect match for that.  

AA: For people coming to The Museum when it opens that may not be as deeply involved in the culture as you or I, what experience do you think they will walk away with?

DD: We’re working as a team very, very hard to make sure that anyone who visits The Museum, whether it’s a five-year-old to a 95-year-old, gets a full breadth of experience that is educational as well as interactive as well as entertaining because Hip Hop is entertaining, whether it’s the fashion, whether it’s any of the principles related to the culture. The goal and the hope is that people will walk away with a deeper understanding of its impact and the educational aspects of the culture, as well as become repeat visitors and come back more and bring their friends.

I think it’s really important to make sure that we are telling a clear, clean story—the good, bad, and ugly—because history has all those parts. People should also be able to walk away with an understanding that they are Hip Hop, too. 

AA: Do you have any favorite Rap artists?

DD: LL Cool J. Heavy D. I’m old school. I fondly remember the first time I heard Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight.” Definitely Heavy D & The Boyz. They opened up the mix of Rap and R&B. I remember seeing them on tour.

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