From data on free admission to donor desires – here are the top ten most popular posts on Know Your Own Bone in 2015.
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Happy New Year! I hope that 2015 was a great year for you and your organizations! 2015 brought many new adventures on this front: speaking engagements, lectures, remarkable projects, travel and conversation with amazing clients across the globe, and the launch of Know Your Own Bone Fast Facts videos and my presence on YouTube.
I am grateful for all of the wonderful attention, link-love, thought-fuel, and shop-talking that Know Your Own Bone readers have provided and continue to provide. I write Know Your Own Bone because I (with the support of IMPACTS (the company that patiently puts up with my asking, “Is this information proprietary?!” during every interaction)) believe that information that can be used to help move cultural organizations forward should be shared so that it can best do its duty. I hope that this little corner of the Internet has been helpful to you and your organizations- and I look forward to connecting with even more of my incredible readers and their mission-driven organizations in 2016. There are a lot of great projects in the works for this upcoming year thanks to all of the attention that Know Your Own Bone is receiving and I cannot wait to share them with all of you!
My favorite thing that I’ve noticed about KYOB readers is that they are curious leaders who aren’t afraid to ask hard questions within their organizations. I love that.
In keeping with my annual new year tradition of posting the year’s most popular posts, here are the (all data-based) articles on Know Your Own Bone that received the most attention in 2015:
How Free Admission Really Affects Museum Attendance
Spoiler alert: It doesn’t much. And misunderstanding this may jeopardize industry solvency. Free admission is far from the engagement cure-all that some of its supporters believe it to be. Here’s the data.
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What Ultra Wealthy Donors Consider Before Supporting a Nonprofit
How can nonprofit organizations engage high net worth board members and donors? To get to the bottom of this million-dollar question, we asked these individuals themselves.
Three New Pricing Realities For Visitor-Serving Nonprofits in the Twenty-First Century
It’s hard for cultural organizations to exist (let alone thrive) in the long-term without a sustainable revenue strategy that optimizes pricing. Want to keep moving your mission moving forward and your doors open? It’s time to end the debate on these pricing-related topics.
Free Admission Days Do Not Actually Attract Underserved Visitors to Cultural Organizations
In reality, free days often do the very opposite of mission work. It’s true: Free admission days do not usually engage affordable access audiences. Here’s data that should make organizations think twice about their free days and underserved audience engagement strategies.
The Game Has Changed: Nonprofits Now Compete With For-Profits
An organization’s nonprofit status may carry neither the perceptual weight nor the relevance that many leadership teams imagine…and nonprofits may be sabotaging their own opportunities for support because of it.
Audience Acquisition: The Cost of Doing Business for Visitor-Serving Organizations
Optimizing marketing investments are increasingly a product of math and science (decidedly not “intuition” or “trial and error”). So here it is: the data-informed equation for how much money organizations should be spending in order to maximize opportunities for financial success. (Heads up: I’ve got a fast facts video of this information coming to you all during the first week of 2016. Get pumped!)
Death By Curation: The Exhibit Strategy That Threatens Visitation and Cultural Center Survival
Blockbuster exhibits sound nice, but they often create a negative cycle that threatens the solvency of the visitor-serving organizations that deploy them. The “bigger, better, more expensive” business model is financially unsustainable and it alienates audiences. Check out the data.
Why Millennials May Be The Most Valuable Generation for Cultural Nonprofits
The sheer size of the millennial generation makes them a critical target audience, but data suggest that millennial visitors may actually be the best visitors. Here’s why.
Influencing Leadership: Three Findings to Effectively Communicate with Cultural Executives
Potentially innovative, groundbreaking ideas risk dying on the vine if they aren’t understood and supported by an organization’s – and an industry’s – leadership. Before you can change the world, you likely need to change some minds. Here’s data that will help.
Visitation to Increase If Organizations Evolve Engagement Models
Attendance to cultural centers is on the decline, but data suggest that forward-facing organizations may see improvements by 2020 if they move forward intelligently. Here’s what organizations need to know.
Thanks again to each and every one of you for following along with KYOB! Here’s to a great 2016 for all!
