Facilities management: Directing and overseeing the housekeeping, maintenance, and structural aspects of a museum; may also include architectural assistance, space utilization, or security.

Fiduciary: The relationship of a person to a museum where that person is bound to exercise rights and powers in good faith for the benefit of the museum.

Financial planning: A systematic process of assessing and matching an organisation's monetary needs and actual or potential monetary resources.

Focus groups: These are groups of 5-9 people drawn from the general public who are invited in advance to share and discuss their thoughts on issues or developments. They are increasingly used in museum visitor and market research.

Friends of the museum: Individuals and organisations legally separate from the museum itself, but which support the museum by giving time, and/or money to help the museum achieve its ambitions.

Fund: An accounting entity established to account for resources used for specific activities or objectives in accordance with special regulations, restrictions, or limitations. A Fund Group is a group of funds of similar character; for example, operating funds, endowment funds, restricted funds, and capital funds. Restricted Funds are those whose use is restricted by the donor for specific purposes, in contrast with funds that the organisation may use for any purpose it chooses in keeping with its mission.

Grant: (a) Financial assistance to enable implementation of a project or program based on an approved program, proposal, and budget. (b) Gift or donation received for either a restricted or unrestricted purpose.

Governing body: ICOM defines the Governing Body as "The persons or organisations defined in the enabling legislation of the museum as responsible for its continuance, strategic development and funding." The term is also used for any similar Board or Council established under other legally binding procedures or agreements, not requiring legislation.

Guidelines: Statements or documents clarifying rules. These may be changed by the issuing authority in accordance with new developments. They do not have the force of law.

Human resources: All of the actual and potential staff and volunteers that may be available to assist the museum in achieving its mission. This term, rather than the older term "Personnel", seeks to emphasise that the labour force is one of the most valuable (and usually one of the most costly) of all the museum's resources, and therefore needs to be effectively managed in the same way as other key resources, such as the collections and premises.

Illegal export: removal from a country contrary to its law. Income-generating activities: Activities intended to bring financial gain or profit for the benefit of the institution.

Information management: The process of managing the many different types of information collected, stored and -used by the museum, including collections and conservation documentation, fieldwork and other research records.

In perpetuity: Literally means continuing forever. This is used in reference to the curation of objects and documents by a museum for the entire length of an object's life.

Insurance: Coverage by contract whereby one party (usually an insurance company, but in some cases a government) undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss as a result of a specified risk.

Inventory: A physically checked, itemised list of the objects in a museum's holdings. The terms Inventory Control and Location Control are used to describe collections management and administrative audit systems under which regular checks are made on each object, or a random sample of objects, to ensure that it is still in the collection, and is in its allocated display or storage location. (See also Catalogue.)