Sector 4: Assessment and Planning

Getting the answer to this question is
goal of the fourth sector.

Recognizing that the prioritization strategy Stacy Klingler and I have laid out over the past four weeks is technically an assessment process, there is still much more that can be done to assess your situation and plan future goals.  And, much has been written about strategic planning, including my chapter in the Small Museum Toolkit.  But in short, to move a museum forward, you need to know what assets you have, understand the gaps, identify what you want to accomplish, and outline the steps to get you there. 

Lucky for small museum folks, there are three organizations who want to help you in this effort and propel you to meet best practices.  The American Association for State and Local History, the American Alliance of Museums, and Heritage Preservation have developed assessment tools that help you put work in perspective, educate board and staff, kick start planning, and provide funding leverage. 

The Standards and Excellence Program for History Organization (StEPs) “is a voluntary assessment program for small- and mid-sized history organizations. The program, created by AASLH with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), encourages awareness and achievement of national standards.” This self-directed assessment process is a great way to get the ball rolling.

If you feel like the opinions of an outside professional and a more intensive self assessment process is what your organization needs, then you should look at MAP and CAP.

The Museum Assessment Program (MAP) “helps small and mid-sized museums strengthen operations, plan for the future and meet national standards through self-study and a site visit from a peer reviewer. IMLS-funded MAP grants are non-competitive and provide $4,000 of consultative resources and services to participating museums.”

Heritage Preservation’s Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) “provides a general conservation assessment of your museum's collection, environmental conditions, and site. Conservation priorities are identified by professionals who spend two days on-site and three days writing a report. The report can help your museum develop strategies for improved collections care and provide a tool for long-range planning and fundraising.”  CAP provides over $7,000 in consultative resources and services, sending a conservator and historic preservation professional (if applicable) on site. 

Ultimately, with an assessment in hand and an organizational commitment to keep moving forward, you will have board, staff, and volunteers on the “same page” which promotes efficiency and strengthens your chances for successful implementation of goals.  You also have a good benchmark to help you see when you’ve arrived at a goal.  You can look back and demonstrate for others where you’ve been which will fuel the new momentum you have.

And, you have a case to make to funders.  Do you need collections storage shelving? A new computer?  Funding for a museum educator?  Any one of these formal assessments offers excellent justification in a grant application, foundation proposal, or case statement for a potential donor.

With just one of these formal assessments in hand, you will know what kind of institutional planning you need – strategic or operational – and you will have a sense of what planning time frame you need.  To take the next planning steps, read “DIY Strategic Planning” in the Small Museum Toolkit, or tap the rich library of planning publications.  Here are a few to get you started. Good luck!

Recommended Resources

Alliance for Nonprofit Management

 

Bryson, John M. and Farnum K. Alston. Creating and Implementing Your Strategic Plan: A Workbook for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, 2^nd Edition. San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 2005.

How To Do Traditional Brainstorming

Lord, Gail Dexter and Kate Markert. The Manual of Strategic Planning for Museums. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2007.

Merritt, Elizabeth E. and Victoria Garvin, editors. Secrets of Institutional Planning. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2007.

McNamara, Carter. Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation. Minneapolis: Authenticity Consulting, LLC, 2003.

Skramstad, Harold and Susan Skramstad.  Handbook for Museum Trustees. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2003.

Strategic Planning for Smaller Nonprofit Organizations

Working in museums for nearly 20 years, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko has been a museum director since 2001. Cinnamon became CEO of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2009. Before that, she was the director of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where she led the organization to the National Medal for Museum Service.  

Sector 3: Solidifying Your Reputation

People will always talk so do what you
can to control the message.

As you consider the relationships you have built or are building, take a moment and consider how people in the community describe your organization.  What kind of reputation does it have?  Is the museum considered quiet and sleepy?  Mysterious?  Stagnant?  Or is it known as innovative and active in the community?  I think all of us prefer the latter description, but not all of us can be assured of it. 

When considering the work before you, knowing your reputation and improving or enhancing it is critical to your success.  There are four strategic ways you can solidify your reputation:

Start taking steps for future fundraising campaigns and annual appeals by establishing or reconnecting with a donor base.  Set up coffee chats, special visits or tours of the museum, attend public events and programs to be seen and meet people, or simply network through friends and family and connect with your base of donors, e.g. members.  Make sure donors know who you are and what the museum’s mission is and be sure to stay in contact.  People give to people and when your donors know who the face of the organization is, their giving comfort improves.

Once you’ve had some “face time” with donors and feel like you understand why people give to the museum, consider a membership drive or a small capital campaign to test the waters.  You, of course, have sizeable funding needs, but instead of tackling them all at once, carve out a smaller campaign that matches your staffing, board, and volunteer capacity.  Establish a goal for members acquired or funds raised and don’t let up until the goal is met.  Then, thank the donors, steward the relationships, and keep them primed and ready for future giving opportunities. 

Separate from the fundraising strategies but critical to your success is your relationship to the local media.  Pay close attention to the messages used to describe the museum and the topics local media focus on when reporting about museums/your museum.  Get in the habit of crafting regular press releases with consistent messaging.  Get to know local journalists and editors – make sure they know they can call you directly when news relates to your organization.  And, never lose sight of how the museum is described in social media circles.  Respond to negative comments with positive language that invites the author to return again.  Develop some kind of regular posting schedule that pushes interesting information about the museum to social media audiences.  A united, consistent messaging process will influence your reputation in lasting ways.

And lastly, and by far the most important way to solidify your reputation is to be kind to everyone.  It sounds ridiculously simple, but one or two bad days and you’ve created a ripple effect among community members who may think you’re inaccessible, disinterested, or worse, rude, and they will make decisions about supporting the museum based on their interactions with you.  If you live in a small town, this extends to the grocery aisle, the day care drop off point, and so much more.  This visibility can be a drag, but it’s also an easy way to draw positive attention to your museum that will ultimately attract support for all of those amazing projects you have lined up.

Next week, you’ll read about the fourth and final sector, assessment and planning, and we’ll see you at the American Alliance of Museums annual meeting in Baltimore!

Working in museums for nearly 20 years, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko has been a museum director since 2001. Cinnamon became CEO of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2009. Before that, she was the director of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where she led the organization to the National Medal for Museum Service.

Sector 2: Building Your Internal Coalition

In at nutshell: "Leadership is relationship."

How do I get board members more engaged? How do I motivate my staff and volunteers to change?

"Leadership is relationship," according to James Kouzes and Barry Posner (social scientists who have been systematically studying leadership for 25 years). So they might (and I would) claim that you engage and motivate one of your most valuable resources – the people who make up your internal coalition – by focusing more on your relationships with them and less on short-term end products.

The pressure to produce – exhibits, attendance, funds – is strongly reinforced by our visitors, our funders, and the bills that show up in the mailbox. And establishing and achieving goals (as Cinnamon will describe in Sector 4) is a key component of success. But rarely is there an outside pressure that reminds small museum leaders how foundational creating trusting and empowering relationships is to long-term success. Harvard Business School recently redefined leadership: "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence."

So how do we make this happen?

Begin with the heart of your museum and clarify or establish your mission with board, staff and volunteers. Talking about mission should not be about "wordsmithing." Encourage conversations about what your museum does and why your work matters to your community. Be sure to share (or better have someone else share) the stories that make your heart swell. Arm your coalition with stories of children returning with their parents after a school tour, or the visitor who shed a tear over the painting that reminded him of his mother, or the genealogist who discovered the first photo she'd ever seen of her great-grandfather in your collection. Use your mission to refocus and remind your board, staff and volunteers about what is most important.

In working with your board, consider asking board members to share their "passion stories" about why they joined. Then tie those stories back to aspects of your mission and use them to motivate discussion about what kind of board members your museum really needs. If your goals require the museum to raise money, forge connections to new audiences or partners, or develop expertise in construction, marketing or management, then you can recruit board members to help you meet your goals. Encourage those in leadership roles on the board and those involved in nominating to recruit for those skills and connections and to lay the groundwork with board members who don't meet those needs to transition into a different relationship with the museum. And as you move toward a more engaged board, include board development and education as a part of the conversation. Most board members would like to learn how to fulfill their role even better, so provide them with small doses of museum standards and best practices. Serving on the board shouldn't be about attending a few meetings: that is not a relationship. Instead, board service should be about developing a stronger connection with a valued organization that knows what it wants each board member to bring to the table.

In working with your staff and volunteers, think about building a team. If a sports team is a useful analogy for you, then think about your role as coach or quarterback. But if sports teams are a bit foreign, you might think about a weight watchers group or a chess club. These groups push each member to be more successful and provide camaraderie, even if their pursuits are individual.  Host regular staff and/or volunteer meetings that have a professional development component (museum standards, customer service, topical education) and also a social component (food, sharing mission stories, etc.). If possible, consider field trips to other museums with follow up conversations about what effective and ineffective and could apply to your site. And in your daily interactions, be aware of how small acts of encouragement reinforce the kind of work you want to see (and how being ignored or dismissed does not).

When you focus your interactions with board, staff, and volunteers around NOT ONLY reaching goals BUT ALSO about cultivating relationships, you help create a long-term foundation for ongoing success. Next week, we turn our focus outside the museum to consider your reputation in the community.

Stacy Klingler currently serves local history organizations as the Assistant Director of Local History Services at the Indiana Historical Society. She began her career in museums as the assistant director of two small museums, before becoming director of the Putnam County Museum in Greencastle, Ind. She was chair of the AASLH Small Museums Committee (2008-2012) and attended the Seminar for Historical Administration in 2006. While she lives in the history field, her passion is encouraging a love of learning in any environment.