EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

METHODOLOGY

Respondents returned 403 usable questionnaires, and IMS determined by telephone that 36 of the non-respondents were not eligible museums, for an instrument response rate of 83%. This report presents our analysis of data from the Institute of Museum Services' (IMS's) "National Needs Assessment" survey of museums. IMS surveyed 524 museums by mail in 1992. The sample was drawn from a list of 11,654 museums, which IMS created from its own records and 64 other lists of museums. The sample was random, except that IMS intentionally over-sampled minority museums. We have adjusted for this over-sampling in our analysis.

GROUPS OF MUSEUMS

Table E.1 shows our estimates of the number of museums, broken down by group.

                         TABLE E.1:
      NON-PROFIT  NON-FEDERAL MUSEUMS IN THE U.S., 1992

                        Count   Share of
                              all museums

All museums             8,934    100%
Small                   6,660     75%
Emerging               4,674+    52%+
Minority                  441      5%
Rural                   3,842     43%

For this study, "museum" is a nonprofit institution that is not part of the U.S. Government, and which is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational or aesthetic purposes, and that owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; cares for these objects; and exhibits them to the general public on a regular basis. "Small Museum" is a museum that has five or fewer full-time paid or unpaid staff, or that has an annual operating budget under $250,000. "Emerging Museum" is a museum that has done one or more of the following within the past two years:

opened to the public for the first time
formed a Board of Trustees or other governing authority
developed bylaws, constitution, or charter
developed a statement of purpose
received 501(c)(3) status from the IRS
developed its first long range plan
started to raise operating funds
started to raise capital funds
established an endowment fund
fundamentally revised its purpose
appointed its first staff member
appointed its first staff member whose job is curatorial or educational duties only.

"Minority Museum" is a museum whose staff and governing body are mostly American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Blacks, or Hispanics; and for which at least one of the following is true:

The majority of its visitors or participants in its programs belong to one or more of the groups named above; or
Its main purpose is to serve, or interpret the culture of, one or more of the groups named above.

"Rural Museum" is a museum that describes its location as rural.

THE DIFFERENT GROUPS OF MUSEUMS ARE VERY SIMILAR

For most questions on the survey, the groups of small, emerging, minority and rural museums gave answers similar to the group of all museums. In most cases, differences between groups were not large enough to be statistically significant. Even where differences were statistically significant, they were usually small. The following sections describe the notable differences between groups of museums.

SMALL MUSEUMS

Three quarters of U.S. museums are small, but small museums account for only 31% of general visits by the public to museums. This is because the mean number of visits per year is only 16,073 for small museums, compared to 38,543 for all museums. As expected, small museums report fewer full-time staff than all museums (with a mean of two versus seven), and smaller mean operating budgets ($86,000 versus $367,000).

EMERGING MUSEUMS

Emerging museums are more active and entrepreneurial than museums in general. Emerging museums report a higher mean operating budget than all museums ($468,000 versus $367,000). They are more likely to report that foundation or corporate donations are a major source of their operating income (28% versus 23% for all museums), and more likely to say that foundation and corporate donations should be a major source of financial support (55% versus 45%). Emerging museums are even less likely than museums in general to say they have no need for more people (3% versus 6% for all museums), or no need for better equipment (3% versus 6%).

MINORITY MUSEUMS

Most museums that principally serve minorities, in terms of the museum's visitors or its purpose, do not have staffs and governing bodies composed mostly of minorities, and therefore are not "minority museums" by the definition of this study. Table E.2 shows the figures.

                               TABLE E.2:
                           NUMBER OF MUSEUMS
                    BY TYPES OF MINORITY INVOLVEMENT

                                                 Minority  Other
                                                 Museums  Museums

Most of staff and governing body are minorities.      441     17
Most visitors or program participants are minorities. 249    670
Main purpose is to serve, or interpret culture of,
minorities.                                           364    850

"Minorities" means American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Blacks and Hispanics. Minority museums report virtually the same mean operating expenditure as all museums ($342,720 versus $367,000), but their sources of operating income are different. Table E.3 shows the differences. Minority museums are more active and confident in obtaining Federal funds than other museums. Minority museums are more likely to have applied to the Federal Government for financial support within the last two years (72% versus 44% for all museums), and the share of applicants that receive funds is as good or better for minority museums than others.

                               TABLE E.3:
                  DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MINORITY MUSEUMS
                            AND ALL MUSEUMS
                     IN SOURCES OF OPERATING INCOME

Share reporting that one of                  All    Minority
its three major sources is:                Museums  Museums

Interest and Investments                     27%       5%
Federal Government                            5%      14%
Tribal Government                             1%      19%

We found no statistically significant difference between minority museums and all museums with regard to other sources of operating income. When asked what would make Federal funds easier to get and use, minority museums are less likely to choose "easier to apply for federal funds" (30% versus 52% for all museums), less likely to choose "more information about federal programs" (20% versus 44%), and more likely to choose "fewer restrictions on use of funds" (35% versus 20%). This suggests that minority museums are already adept at obtaining Federal funds, and are therefore more concerned about restrictions on the funds they receive. Minority museums look to the Federal government for additional support. When asked what would be most useful to enable them to expand a building or move to a new building, 43% of minority museums included "more support from the federal government" in their top three choices, compared to 20% of all museums. Minority museums are much more likely than all museums to describe their location as an inner city (30% versus 13%). Minority museums that applied to a county government for financial support within the last two years are significantly less likely to say they received county support within that period (67% versus 91% for all museums). But this pattern does not hold for city or State funding. Minority museums are less likely to cite maintenance as a priority need for more money (9% versus 33% for all museums).

RURAL MUSEUMS

Rural museums are more likely than museums in general to be distant from other facilities, but fewer than half of rural museums face such isolation, as shown on Table E.4.

                               TABLE E.4:
       MUSEUMS THAT SAY THEY ARE MORE THAN AN HOUR'S DRIVE FROM:

                               Share of
                              All    Rural
                            museums museums

A major urban area             26%    45%
A major airport                25%     44%
A college
or university                  13%     21%
Another museum                 11%     19%

We did not find any statistically significant difference between rural museums and all museums in their distribution across geographic regions (New England, Mid-Atlantic, etc.). Rural museums report a smaller mean operating expenditure than all museums ($161,000 versus $367,000). When asked what would make Federal funds easier to get and use, rural museums were more concerned with being able to apply, rather than the total amount of money in the programs, as shown on Table E.5.

                               TABLE E.5:
           DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RURAL MUSEUMS AND ALL MUSEUMS
                IN CHOICES FOR IMPROVING FEDERAL FUNDING

                                    Share of museums
                                        All Rural
Easier to apply                         52%  59%
More information about programs         44%  51%
More money in programs                  40%  28%
More assistance in applying             30%  38%

NEEDS OF MUSEUMS

Except as described above, small, emerging, minority and rural museums were, as groups, similar to all museums in their descriptions of their needs. Almost every museum said it needed each resource the questionnaire asked about. But there were patterns in what they said they needed the resources for. Research, general administration, and maintenance were not among the most-reported needs for any of the resources. Table E.6 summarizes these findings.

                               TABLE E.6:
                      MUSEUMS' NEEDS FOR RESOURCES

                 Share of museums     Activities most reported
                  reporting need      as needing this resource

More Money             97%            Educational Programs
                                      Exhibitions
                                      Collections Care & Mngmt

More People            94%            Educational Programs

Better Equipment       94%            Collections Care & Mngmt

More Training          87%            Educational Programs
                                      Collections Care & Mngmt

More Space             83%            Collections Care & Mngmt

FUNDING AND FEDERAL ASSISTANCE

Museums report that earned income (such as admissions and sales) was their most important source of operating income, as shown in Graph. When asked what should be their major sources of financial support, museums generally pointed to their current sources of income. But there were some notable differences. For example, more museums want foundations and corporations to be a major funding source than currently have it as a major source. Graph 2 shows that the difference between the number of museums that want foundations and corporations to be a major source and the number of museums that have it is equal to 22% of all museums. That is, the net share of museums that want to increase the role of foundation and corporate support is 22%. [Graphs removed from on-line edition.] By contrast, fewer museums want individual donations to be a major funding source than currently have it as a major source. Graph 2 shows that the net share of museums that want to increase the role of individual donations is -11%. [Graphs removed from on-line edition.] Only 41% of all museums said they were satisfied that Federal assistance was available to meet their needs. When asked what would make Federal funds easier to get and use, the most popular choices were more information about federal programs, and making the programs easier to apply for, as shown in Graph.

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