[BCMA] To charge or not to charge?

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

I meant to chime in on this last week, and it slipped my mind. Creston
Museum is a small museum in a small community, and we charge admission in
summer - $4 for adults, $3 youth, and $10 for a family (we're pretty
flexible on what constitutes a family). In winter, we switch to an admission
by donation system, because it's cold so visits tend to be shorter, and we
almost always have part of it torn up while we change an exhibit or repaint
a room or something.

 

In summer, most people pay the admission without questions, though we
occasionally get people who refuse to pay admission, or who walk in with no
money in any form because they expect it will be free; and on days when we
do go with admission by donation (event days, for example), our per person
revenues drop to less than $2. On the other hand, we also get a lot of
comments that "it's worth much more than we charge," but if we tried
charging more, I know we would lose visitors. But in winter, we regularly
get people handing us $20 donations and more. The difference is that in
winter, people hand us the donation after they've visited and in summer,
they're asked for admission when they arrive. So, if we could figure out a
way to show people how fantastic we are before they've seen it, we could
probably go to an admission-by-donation format and considerably increase our
admission revenues.

 

Tammy

 

--------------------------------------------------

Tammy Bradford, Manager

Creston Museum

219 Devon Street, Creston BC V0B 1G3

250-428-9262

 

 

 

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca <bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca> On Behalf Of
Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2018 5:02 PM
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca
Subject: Re: [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?

 

Dear Museum Friends,

Thank you for the generous response to this query around admissions
policies.  Responses continue to trickle in, so let's continue to share our
experience.  Later on, I will do my best to summarize and report back with
some takeaways from this critical conversation.

 

Regards,

Linda

 



 

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca <mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca>
[mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca] On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber
listserv.
Sent: August-01-18 3:21 PM
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca <mailto:bcma at lists.vifa.ca> 
Subject: [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?

 

Dear Friends,

 

We operate three museums in downtown Kelowna, with admission by donation.
Our admissions  policy is under review, and we would like to know what other
museums have learned about admission policy.  What are museums of various
size categories handling admission? Does charging admission, rather than
asking for a donation, increase or decrease revenues?  How does it impact
visitation?  What else has been learned?

 

Here is our experience:  Kelowna Museums Society sees just under 40,000
visitors a year at our three museums.  We have a long history of offering
admission by donation.  Last year, we posted small signs on the donation
boxes stating the suggested donation is $5 per person. This worked for us,
and we noticed an increase in donation box revenues. Based on recent
performance, our budget reflects anticipated donation box revenues from our
three facilities of $34,000.  Our average donation per person is about half
of our suggested donation, or around $2.50 (some of our visitors pay program
fees that are not reflected in the donation box revenue line, so this
average refers to casual drop-in visitors).  

 

The board would like to know if revenues would increase if we instituted an
admission fee.  Alternatively, they wonder if it would be beneficial to make
our suggested donation signage more prominent and detailed, with suggested
donations for individuals,  families, seniors, students, etc. 

 

General comments may be shared with the entire listserv community.  Anyone
who would like to engage in a more detailed exchange may contact me directly
at:

ldigby at kelownamuseums.ca <mailto:ldigby at kelownamuseums.ca> , or 778-478-0346

 

Best,

Linda

 



 



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