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 Member retention rates

Amanda Kirchgessner's profile image
Amanda Kirchgessner posted 08-08-2023 05:51 PM

Hello everyone!

I'm working with several Museums these days, and have been asked more than once about benchmarking member retention rates. If someone know where a recent report is for this figure in the U.S. or abroad, can you point me in that direction? If not, I have some questions below...

I'd love to hear about your organization's Member retention rates since COVID  (the past 1-3 years).

  1. What type of Museum are you?
  2. What is your member renewal rate?
  3. How many visitors do you get annually (on average)?
  4. How many members do you have (ballpark)?

Thanks so much for any insights!

Tabetha Pund's profile image
Tabetha Pund posted 08-09-2023 07:50 AM

Hi Amanda,

We have been surveying membership managers for years in our Pulse of Membership survey, including renewal rates overall as well as a breakdown by organization type. You can find the pulse surveys on our website. Here is a link to the most recent one: Pulse of Membership Year-End 2022 Survey Results & Trends

Hope this helps!

Tabetha

Tabetha Pund

Strategic Planning and Project Manager 

Membership Consultants 

Amanda Kirchgessner's profile image
Amanda Kirchgessner posted 08-09-2023 08:02 AM

@Tabetha Pund, thank you so much! This is just what we're looking for. Thanks for doing great work and sharing it. I also pointed our your business website to the Membership Manager I support. =) 

Taylor Vandergrift's profile image
Taylor Vandergrift posted 08-09-2023 11:59 AM

Hi Amanda!

I am the Membership Coordinator at Denver Zoo and have been doing similar research within the zoo realm! I hope this information is helpful:
1. Denver Zoo

2. Our member renewal rate has been around 61% for the past two years.

3. We have about 1.5 million visitors annually.

4. We were expecting to have about 48k households this year; however, we ran a unique offer for "Celebrate Colorado" and gave the steepest discount we have ever offered, which was 50% off. I will also add that this was to help mitigate the on-site experience with construction; nonetheless, we have more households than anticipated due to this offer - we currently have about 51k households and expect more before the end of the year.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions for me, please do not hesitate to reach out 😊

Amanda Kirchgessner's profile image
Amanda Kirchgessner posted 08-09-2023 02:11 PM

@Taylor Vandergrift, thank you so much for those details!  I attended an AZA conference site tour at the Denver Zoo nearly ten years ago and was so impressed by the evaluation work you all do. Glad to hear it's still going strong! I appreciate you taking the time to share the details!

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