The Future is Bright! Can You See It?
The Future is Bright! Can You See It?
August 27, 2020 by Taylor Studios
Non-profits everywhere are waiting for the green light to open but too many just don’t have a comprehensive plan for a sustainable future. For decades museums, community, and arts organizations have relied on small grants and big donors. Tomorrow will be very different.
Covid has some of us tied up in knots, while others are already creating a plan for growth. It’s time to see beyond the problems and find the great new opportunities that will result from this horrible pandemic. The opportunities are plentiful. But you must step forward now and begin the process of developing new organizational programs that meet your critical mission and serve your bottom line.
For decades our institutions, museums, and parks have created programming that serves the mission… but all too often does not fully engage the community. You’ve always competed with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of local weekend recreational or educational choices. Not anymore.
Your members have always had dozens of cultural, recreational, or environmental choices. When this is over… you will likely be one of just a few choices left. The malls, movie theaters, bars, festivals, and most recreational activities have disappeared, and it will be years before they emerge again. This is your opportunity to fill that gap, to build a bridge to your community, expand your organization, and deliver your message to a larger audience. But how?
In the short term you must figure out how to open safely, beyond the obvious signage, and front door hand sanitizing stations. You need to create a plan to spread out your visitors and avoid crowd peaks. Each element of that plan can and should help your bottom line.
Find your team strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t have a strong business manager, now is the time to find one. Is your marketing director fully engaged with testing new software and creative strategies that build your audience and sales? Is your program director reaching out to community and educational groups for creative program development? Is your gift shop or cafe concession actively involved in audience development and marketing? Do you have team accountability? What are your tangible goals for improving your message outreach and bottom-line growth?
Actually, the future for museums has never been brighter! You just have to see the light in order to come out of the darkness. Every community is different, each has its own set of cultural and environmental assets. Those assets are the building blocks to revitalization of your Main Street and tourism sector. It’s your job to reconnect it all and be the foundation for a sustainable future. you create an affordable action plan.