I think it is a great idea to try to tease out why people buy memberships.  We also have two distinct groups- those who want the "perks" (in our case, the Museum Store discount is a popular one), and those who just want to support us.  We have never had any trouble with people confusing annual giving with membership buying, however.  I think this may be because of how we word/structure our annual appeals.  We are usually asking people to donate to a specific project or initiative- then they can decide whether and how much they support that particular thing.  Our memberships are completely different in that they have an expectation of continual sustained support for basic operating expenses.  We also make memberships due in January, start our annual campaign in the early summer and have our big fundraiser in the fall.
 
I think a "choose your membership" is a neat idea, but it sounds like a LOT of extra work for whoever has to keep track of all that. 

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Deana Mallory <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi all,

I have been thinking about changing the way our museum approaches membership versus annual giving, since it routinely confuses the heck out of everyone.  My idea is in the very rough stages (as in, I have mostly been thinking about it during my commute for the last couple of days) but I wanted to see if anyone else has tried anything like this, or what responses you all might have.

My thought is to sort out who our members are a little more.  There are those who want free admission.  They generally purchase the lowest cost memberships.  Then there are those who want to be financial supporters of the museum.  They generally buy higher priced memberships, and donate to the annual fund.  Obviously the two groups are not mutually exclusive, but that's the general pattern.

Has anyone ever tried offering an "annual pass" for frequent visitors?  I am even thinking about a punch card style pass.  For $x, you get up to x number of free visits.  Then we could have what I'm thinking of as a "museum lover's pass" which would include the NARM sticker and be a bit more expensive and more traditional with unlimited visits to the museum for a year.  Then add what I'm calling Museum Affinity Groups to give people a way to support the museum and give us a way to discover their particular interests.  For example, the Education Affinity Group would pay $x annually, get a discount on admission and on ed programs, and get bonus information about those programs.  The Collector's group would get occasional bonus lectures from the curator, tours of collections, and so on.  You could purchase an annual pass and an affinity group, if you were so inclined.  Maybe do some kind of combo deal.

I don't know if this would just confuse people MORE or if it would help people understand that their annual fund donation is different than their membership. I wonder what impact it would have on the bottom line.  I also don't know how to transition from what we have now (traditional membership program) to this new idea, if we do.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

--
Deana R. Mallory
Interim Executive Director
Director of Public Programs
Bennington Museum
75 Main Street
Bennington, VT 05201
802-447-1571
www.benningtonmuseum.org

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