millennials and museums: strategies for short-term engagement and long-term success

Millennials:

Strategies for Short Term Engagement

and Long Term Success

Will Cary

Portland Museum of Art

NEMA Conference, Boston MA

Friday, November 21, 2014

Twitter: @willcary

Setting the Table

Norman Rockwell, Freedom From Want (1943). Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge,

MA

Setting the Table

• Museums face challenges with every demographic

• Millennials are younger, but they’re still museum visitors and donors

• Such a big topic, so let’s narrow it down

• Focus today on growing membership, creating new donors and providing leadership opportunities

• Not an overview, but what has worked for us in Portland

Common Ground &

Assumptions• Resources at your museum are limited

• Membership is the best way to achieve meaningful engagement in the long term

• Your institution is participating in the larger paradigm shift that is occurring in museums everywhere

• You have a venue, young people in the area, young person(s) on staff

• Really talking about everyone from 21-40, for our purposes

Number of Millennials demands our attention

It’s tempting to assign traits to 80 million people…

But the media isn’t always helpful…

Let’s look at some relevant data instead

Source: CultureTrack 2014: Focus on Boston ©LaPlaca Cohen|Campbell Rinker

Millennials are visiting Boston museums

Source: CultureTrack 2014: Focus on Boston ©LaPlaca Cohen|Campbell Rinker

PMA’s Success with Millennials

• 10 years of membership programming for this

demographic through Contemporaries

• Nearly 300 memberships (500+ people)

• $100,000+ in projected revenue 2014-2015

• 32 have given gifts of $1,000+

• Completed two fundraising campaigns beyond

membership (2012 and 2014)

• Group has sponsored exhibitions and programs

• 6 current or former Contemporaries are Trustees

• 6 Contemporaries also sit on Trustee

subcommittees

Keys to PMA’s success with Millennials

• 1. Structure and Programming

• 2. People

• 3. Resources and fundraising

Contemporaries Midsummer Party (July 2014)

1st Key to Success: Structure

• Create overlapping program opportunities

across the museum for Millennials

• Contemporaries membership history

• Membership pricing and benefits

• Contemporaries programming strategy

PMA Millennial Programming Strategy

Free Friday

Third Thursday

Contemporaries

PMA Leadership

Goal: Make it natural and easy to deepen engagement

PMA Millennial Programming Strategy

• Free Fridays: Because you live here

• Third Thursdays: Because you know people going

• The Contemporaries: Because you want to be a

part of something

• Committees and Leadership: Because the PMA is

your museum June 2014 PMA Third Thursdays

PMA Free Fridays: A Portland

Institution•Beginning in 1996, PMA went free from 5-9 p.m. on Fridays

•Big crowds especially around First Friday Art Walk

•Light programming for families and artists

•Accounts for 20-30% of annual attendance

•Lots of first-time and one-time visitors

PMA Third Thursdays

•Launched in June

2014

•Sponsored by the

Contemporaries

•Contemporaries hosts

drive traffic

•Live music and beer

tasting

•Art making activities

and talks/tours

•Aimed at

professionals and

PMA members in

downtown Portland

•Still a work in

Contemporaries Snapshot• Founded in 2005 by a group of committed

donors

• Has grown significantly: Nearly 300

memberships (more than 500 people)

• Leadership: Third Thurs, Event, Steering, Board

of Trustees

• Focus areas:

– Integrating Contemporaries into every PMA initiative

– Growing a culture of philanthropy

– Finding the best volunteer leaders, giving them

opportunities to succeed

Contemporaries Benefits and

Pricing• Contemporaries Single ($200) Dual ($300)

• All events are free with membership except

Winter Bash

• Keeping dues accessible is a priority

• Targeted fundraising to capture excess capacity

Contemporaries Programming

Formula• 6-8 total events per year

• 2 large social events (one winter, one

summer)

• 2 small, art focused events (“After Hours”)

• 1-2 off-site event with artists

• 1-2 collaboration with another

cultural/community organization

Large events have a specific goal: Bring in new members and develop new leadership

Balance big events with smaller opportunities for deep

engagement with art, staff, and fellow members

Keep a close eye on who shows up!

As a benefit, these events add value because they are still Contemporaries

events

Off-site events grow cultural supporters while enhancing the

museum’s reputation as a willing partner

A word on aging out and moving up

•Age limits are hard, but they a key component to structure

•Institutional decision around age limit and enforcement

•20-somethings won’t speak up, they just won’t come

•Can’t fill in the bottom without doing something at the top

•Young patrons groups cannot exist in a vacuum

•“Bridge to Somewhere” Committee

•Ongoing challenge, would love to hear your ideas

2nd Key to Success: People

Key to Success: People

• Find your champions (ideally they come to you!)

• Create opportunities for increasing responsibility

• Staff assigned are critical for sustained growth

This is our Event Committee…

Actually, this is our Event Committee

FUNraisers

Go-Getters

DiversifiersFriendraisers

Fundraisers

PMA Event Committee Strategy

• FUNraisers– Event planning/design/volunteer experience

• Friendraisers– Well-connected; can deliver pockets of people

• Fundraisers– Have capacity and/or willing to solicit

• Go-Getters– Have time and elbow grease

• Diversifiers– Hardest in Maine, yet often most important

Millennial Event Committee Strategy

• Respect their time– Start/end meetings on time, get on calendars early

• Give them real work– They’ll know if you don’t. Respect their abilities.

• Help leaders lead– Prep committee chairs for success

• Let them behind the curtain– “Here’s how things work internally. You can help…”

• Provide opportunities for “non-work” fun– Happy hour goes a long way to building trust and

camaraderie, especially early on

Contemporaries Steering

Committee Strategy

• No more than 10 people (ideally 7-9)

• Recruit new members via Event

Committee

• Co-Chair model works for us

• 3 year-commitment, with some flexibility

• Each have specific skills, but ideally have

at least 4 of 5 Event Committee traits

• Monthly meetings set in stone

3rd Key to Success: Resources and

Fundraising• As group grows, remember that membership is

the most important factor for success

• Just as hard as getting a new member: getting

first gift beyond membership

• Be strategic in use of volunteers

Case Study: Contemporaries donate $32,000 to Winslow Homer Studio

Campaign

Lessons Learned (2011-2012)

•Participation drives excitement and

revenue

•Steering Committee can’t sell

something that seems abstract and

unfamiliar

•Focus gifts around events because

Contemporaries know events

•Big gifts come to opening gala

•“Your gift is your event ticket”

•Take advantage of unique

opportunities

Contemporaries and Winslow Homer Studio Campaign

Case Study: Contemporaries give $25,000 for

Acquisition

Case Study: Indiegogo

Campaign

Crowdfunding

lessons

• Let leadership sell it,

and bring it outside

• Make it easy to

achieve and to

understand

• Run it like a campaign

• Use email strategically

• Act as if the entire

group donatedPhoto via Contemporaries member Meredith

Perdue (www.mapandmenu.com)

Visible project for Trustees to follow

Millennials at the PMA

Surprise Outcomes

Young donors energize older base

Contemporaries & Director’s Circle joint opening: 2013 PMA Biennial

They are great at repeating the company line

Traditional fundraising still works wonders

• Handwritten notes from Committee members

• Solicitations over lunch and coffee

• Including a peer on visits

What short term engagement looks

like• Social programming that is accessible

• Structure that makes it natural to move

closer and deepen engagement

• A group of volunteers who are helpful

• Some institutional resources allocated to

attracting and retaining millennial donors

• Ideally a membership program that fits

their level of engagement

What long-term success looks like

• A robust and sustainable group of under-

40 members

• Committees that are productive and

provide leadership opportunities

• Successful fundraising beyond

membership

• Additional internal resources for this group

• Integration of Millennials into all museum

initiatives and levels of leadership

• Proud museum ambassadors who

influence and energize other

constituencies

Come visit us!

Will Cary | wcary@portlandmuseum.org | (207) 699-4909

Twitter: @willcary