Four seasons of the museum summer
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This document discusses the challenges facing historic house museums in maintaining operational sustainability. It notes that only 10% of house museums in Philadelphia have an endowment, 80% have maintenance needs over $1 million, and the average operating budget is $100,000. Future patterns of philanthropy are uncertain as wealth and volunteering behaviors change. Historic house museums must diversify programming, revenue streams, and audiences in order to adapt and remain viable in the future.
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Four seasons of the museum summer
- 1. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Operational Sustainability Michelle Zupan Curator & Director, Hickory Hill Thomson, GA Chair, AASLH Historic House Museum Committee www.hickory-hill.org
- 2. 15,000 “house museums” in America* Of the 300 in Philly, only 10% had an endowment 80% had maintenance and preservation needs exceeding $1 million Average operating budget $100,000 * There are more house museums in America than there are McDonald’s in America. (14,157)
- 3. Trends Watch 2013, American Alliance of Museums http://aam-us.org/docs/center-for-the-future-of-museums/ trendswatch2013.pdf 70% of wealth concentrated in the hands of Baby Boomers Women give more than men, but…. Millenials & women prefer outcome-oriented philanthropy (think underserved audiences, community gardens, etc) WHAT THIS MEANS: • Assumptions based on the behavior of previous generations of donors are not a reliable guide to future patterns of philanthropy.
- 5. St. Louis Federal Reserve Data http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/tags /series/?t=museums Just 2 more graphs – I promise…
- 6. Strategic Plan – where are you & where are you going in the next 3 to 5 years? Endowment – Do you have one? At least 3 months of Operating Costs (keeping the lights on & the toilets flushing) A fund for Building Preservation Costs Sufficient funds to cover Staff Costs
- 7. US Census Data Every 7 seconds an American turns 50 From the Bureau of Labor Statistics & Volunteering in America survey The Baby Boom generation WAS volunteering in higher numbers than the WW2 Generation, but… 37% of volunteers serve in an EDUCATIONAL institution Since 2010, the number of hours given has remained FLAT Overall volunteerism DECLINED
- 8. Interpretive Plan – what are you going to say & how are you going to say it Disaster Plan – you may never need it, but won’t you be happy if you have it and DO need it? Rentals & Alternate Revenue Streams – the way of the future for museums Yes, it says Museum & Farmer’s Market!
- 9. Brucemore – Concert & Play series with Balloon Glow Hickory Hill – Educator Workshops Springfield Museum – Girl Scout night
- 10. Beauvoir, post- Hurricane Katrina http://www.dplan.org/ 9/11 Memorial Museum collections area during flood Hancock County, GA courthouse August 11, 2014 fire
- 11. Hickory Hill Tornado 2007 Hickory Hill Icemageddon 2014 R& D works too Rip Off & Duplicate
- 12. Education Programs Must be aligned to the State Educational Standards. Think outside the Mission Statement Partnerships – Symbiosis is good Look to State Parks, Environmental Education Centers, other types of museums Marketing/PR/Advertising Plan WHO are you trying to reach & HOW should you do it? Marketing ROI – understand it!
- 13. Millennials interact with their smartphones 43 times per day. 71% of social media users are more likely to purchase products from brands that they are connected to on social media websites.
- 14. You aren’t done yet • Collections Policy & Collecting Plan • Exhibition Plan (minimum 3 to 5 years out) • Conservation Plan (artifacts & structures) • Visitor Surveys • Assessments – MAP, STePS, etc http://www.semcdirect.net/page-706790 http://historyleadership.org/ www.npi.org www.campbellcenter.org
- 15. How are House Museums Adapting to the Future? When: Friday, June 12, 2015 Time: 9:00am – 3:00pm Where: Atlanta History Center Cost: $95 Info & Registration: http://www.aaslh.org/ Speakers: Max Van Balgooy, Engaging Places Ken Turino, Historic New England Jessica Rast VanLanduyt, Atlanta History Center
- 16. “The stem of the flower is in fact STEM–science, technology, engineering, and math. But the blossom of the flower is the humanities. Without the blossom, the stem is completely useless. It’s just a stem.” – actor John Lithgow
Editor's Notes
- 2000 -- Pew's Heritage Philadelphia Program found 300 historic house museums in the Philadelphia Fewer than 10 percent of those have endowments 80 percent are facing preservation and maintenance costs of about $1 million operating budgets average only $100,000. 2007 -- Pew Charitable Trust -- 15,000 museums that identified as a historic house or site or were housed in a historic structure.
- Since 2008: Wealth is more concentrated 50% of 2011 charitable gifts came from 3% of wealthiest households Boomers less generous than their parents generation – WW2 were “give because it’s the right thing to do” Women give more than men but demand proof of effectiveness of donation Outcome oriented – measurable and will make a difference, not just keeping the lights on We can see this from not only a philanthropic but also a museum perspective – more people are donating to their churches for larger buildings than to historic or arts organizations
- Museum giving has remained flat since 2004 and it’s not likely to change for a while.
- St. Louis Federal Reserve tracks data for many types of organizations including museums. Top graph -- operating expenses for museum since 2005. Bottom is all revenue sources for museums since 2009
- Gone are the days of build it and they will come or build it and they will fund it. Strategic Planning is almost always over looked in small museums. This living document can help you stay on track to reach items on the next several slides. i.e., improve disaster readiness, develop interpretation on the barn, etc An Endowment is highly advised. Start talking to those elderly wealthy donors and volunteers about legacy planning – designating in their will a decent chunk of change to your museum that will serve as seed money for an endowment. 3 Months of General Operating money is really low, but in today’s economy… 6 months is better. One of the complaints I hear from visitors to my own site is – yours is so well maintained, so many historic house museums are so run down – Preservation Costs are generally the last concern, but we need to think about WHY people come to us – it’s the buildings! Too often of late I’ve heard of places that spent so much on their new this or that that they didn’t have any money to pay the staff during the last 3 months of the fiscal year.
- Volunteer run organizations are nice, but let’s be realistic – they don’t grow, can rarely meet the needs of the community, and we are losing volunteers faster than we are replacing them. WW2 generation volunteers the most, Gen Y-ers much less. Educational organizations rank as #1, Religious #2, Civic organizations were just 4% Volunteers are twice as likely to donate $$ as non-volunteers Chart Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-rosenthal/generation-who-new-report_b_928426.html
- Interp Plan – whether you are a historic house or a static museum you need one of these. It will help you tell a cohesive story and make for a better product. Save money – you do not need to hire someone to do this for you. Disaster Plan – far too many museums don’t have one. Dplan is an online tool that you can input stuff about your museum and it will spit out a plan. Great thing. You also need to train all of your staff on it. Every one needs a copy. Alternate Revenue Streams – be advised rentals & ARS take time and staff hours & can be hard on the resource --
- The Urban Institute-- by 2004 -- 71% of non-profit revenue came from fees for goods & services, government grants & private giving had fallen to 23.5% of revenue Some ideas – farmer’s markets, community gardens, concerts and festivals, bed & breakfast, night in the museum, ghost tours, educator workshops.
- Bad things happen to good museums all the time. Be prepared. Have a disaster plan, ensure everyone has a copy, and update it every single year. It’s worth it.
- Hickory Hill in the last 10 years has had a tornado – 3 buildings & 250 trees, ice storms 1 building, and various small disasters like broken water pipes, branches through the roof, etc. Do your disaster plan – now.
- As mentioned in relation to volunteers – education is incredibly important. This is NOT giving a guided tour and calling it good. These are actual programs that are interactive, engaging, and will get people through your doors. Schools are increasingly losing field trip funds, so any trips they do take have to be aligned to the State Educational Standards. Mission – don’t be hidebound, history/art did not occur in a vacuum -- every museum can do something about science/technology Partnerships – don’t be afraid of them, you can double your program offerings and your numbers Marketing Plan – they won’t come just because you have an Open sign on the door
- I was sitting next to a woman during a focus group at an art museum. She said the museum needed to ensure it appeared in the paper every week because most people got their news from the paper. In reality newspaper readership has fallen 20% in a decade. Millenials and increasingly Gen X’ers and Boomers are connecting to the world through their phones and tablets. How many museums have a website – how often is it updated? If it has been more than 3 months it is seriously out of date. How many museums have a facebook page – how often do you post? Twitter? Facebook should be posted to at least once a week. Twitter daily or more. Do you have a Tumblr blog? Linked in page for business? ALL FREE Mail Chimp does mass emailing for you – newsletter, etc – up to 2000 subscribers for FREE Hoot Suite can coordinate & time your posts to Facebook, Twitter so they go out at the best possible times. Only have to write 1 post to hit 50 social media platforms for FREE.
- There are things that as a museum professional whether you are new to the field or an old pro that you need to be working on and updating. There are places that can help. JIMI is an SEMC program –it’s 7 days on Jekyll Island and hits everything I’ve talked about today in depth. SHA is 3 weeks in Indianapolis again same stuff just really in depth. NPI and Campbell Center are individual day long to week long classes in everything from Cultural Resource Management to the conservation of historic windows. Scholarships are available for all of these. I attended JIMI this year and it was inspiring.
- In conclusion, I would like to categorically state that the mid-point of a museum’s life cycle should be just as active and engaged as it was when the restoration or building campaign was going on. There is no resting on your laurels in the modern museum world. If you want to avoid the next two phases in the lifecycle the time to start reworking your operations is now.