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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