[BCMA] To charge or not to charge?

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Hi all,
I too am very interested in this conversation. I have worked in museums that have charged admission, offered free admission and offered admission by donation. I agree with Rebecca, your audience and your funders are important in determining which route to go. Many of my colleagues have already responded to this thread. I just wanted to add a personal story.

I was recently in Tacoma, Washington and visited the WW Seymour Botanical Conservatory. A lovely place to visit, I recommend for anyone interested in botanical gardens or Victorian style design (1908). They clearly indicated at their entrance that admission was by donation. Generally, if I see this, I will make a donation, however on entering, there was no obvious donation box. There was also no person to inquire where I might make a donation. I had to make my way to the gift shop area in another part of the building before I found anyone. Even after finding someone in the gift shop there was still no obvious place to make a donation. Plus, as has been pointed out already, I rarely carry cash, much less American currency. And we were pressed for time. I must admit, I felt a little guilty about not making a donation, but I think my point is, if you are going to ask for a donation, at least make it easy for visitors to comply. I really like the idea of having the option to make a donation by card, especially for international visitors (although obviously there would be a cost associated with this route). Sometimes I think admission by donation is making it more difficult for our visitors to support us. Where-as if you have a set admission price, you arrive, you decide if you want to pay the admission and then you enter based on whether you think the experience will be worth the entrance fee. In the case of the WW Seymour Botanical Conservatory, I would have gladly paid an admission fee. The flip-side of that equation though is if you charge admission, then you need staff at the gate to charge the visitor. And I think many smaller organizations don’t have the money to pay for a staff person to collect entrance fees. So the default is to take the middle road between free and paid admission and charge by donation. However, I’m not convinced that this is the best option for our visitors.

Thanks for sharing,

Andrew Hildred
Programs Coordinator
Vancouver Maritime Museum


From: bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca <bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca> On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2018 11:58 AM
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca
Subject: Re: [BCMA] To charge or not to charge?


A number of factors make charging for our facility a challenge. Much of our exhibits are located outdoors on the grounds, which are accessible from a variety of directions. Our internal display spaces is small. Our building entrance area is the official visitor centre for the region, thus a no charge zone. The entrance area also has our gift shop and washroom area. To place a control point where the transition area to the exhibits  would be difficult. We are looking at a possible expansion, which may make an admission charge viable, but even then, I am not sure we as an organization want to add that barrier.



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