Nurturing exploration in young minds.
The vision of the Association of Children’s Museums: to build a world that prioritizes the rights of all children to playful learning and a healthy, safe, and equitable future.
About the ACM Trends Data Hub
Welcome to the ACM Trends Data Hub, an online portal providing access to data and resources about the children’s museum field. Since 2015 ACM has partnered with Knology (knology.org) in co-creating research-based resources that draw attention to emerging trends and opportunities for elevating the children’s museum field. This collaborative work has evolved into the ACM Trends Program (ACM Trends), which includes the ACM Trends Reports, ACM Trends Forums, and this ACM Trends Data Hub. The program is designed to build the children’s museum field’s capacity to use data to advance museums’ financial stability, professional accountability, and service to their communities.
To familiarize children’s museum staff with this new resource, we recently hosted a webinar to introduce this new resource and provide an overview of its various features and affordances. You can watch a recording of this webinar below.
ACM Trends Reports
The ACM Trends Reports series shares practical information for children’s museums to tell the story of our field, drawing from more than a decade of ACM member data. The Trends Reports help museum professionals use data to become more accountable to their mission and fiscal responsibilities. Concise and easily understood, the reports can be shared in internal communications with your organization’s stakeholders, including staff, Board members, and funders, or for use in marketing materials, fundraising, and presentations.
ACM Trends Data Hub
The ACM Trends Data Hub allows museums to access and benchmark operational data from 2016 to the present. The Data Hub allows museums to access their own data, compare their museum to field-wide averages, and benchmark their museum to other museums throughout the U.S. The data is presented in operational groups related to attendance, income, expenses, and staff. Ratios are used in each group to further contextualize the data and allow for future forecasting.
ACM Data Collection
The ACM Trends Program team collects data on museum operations through surveys and publicly available information. The information collected focuses on finances, staffing, attendance, programming, facilities, and fundraising. The information is collected from ACM member museums and supports the ACM Trends Reports and ACM Trends Data Hub.
ACM is the world’s foremost professional society supporting and advocating on behalf of children’s museums, and those who work at and otherwise sustain them.
