5 Best Educational Program Planning Tips for Museums

 Shannon Scanlan, Guest Blogger

This guest article was written and submitted by Shannon Scanlan, Solutions Engineer at Doubleknot. Please see the end of this article for Shannon's bio.

By: Shannon Scanlan

If your museum is like most, its main objective is to build an engaged, inclusive community through learning-focused experiences. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to run educational programs that take what community members can learn from your exhibitions to the next level. This deeper engagement and time spent with others who share their interests can convert them from passive visitors into active supporters of your organization.

At first, it may seem challenging to plan outstanding educational programming among all of the other moving parts of museum management. In this guide, we’ll try to lighten the load by sharing five proven tips for organizing these types of activities, including how to:

1. Choose Programs That Appeal to Your Audience

2. Develop a Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy

3. Create Streamlined Registration Forms

4. Keep a Unified Calendar of Events

5. Track Data on Your Educational Programs

Whether you run a nationally recognized art gallery or a local history center, these strategies can make your educational program planning go much more smoothly. All you need is a little creativity and the right tools to power your efforts. Let’s get started!

1. Choose Programs That Appeal to Your Audience

The first step in leveling up your museum’s educational programming is to decide what types of programs to offer. Here are a few of the most common programs and their benefits:

• Field trips are often the first touchpoint K-12 students have with your organization. By working closely with teachers and administrators at area schools, you can design experiences that align with the curriculum. For instance, if your science museum has an exhibit on common chemical elements, you could invite a local high school’s chemistry students to tour it right after they’re introduced to the periodic table in their classes.
• Summer camps allow younger students to continue learning through games, art projects, and other fun activities when school is out of session. Consider hosting full-day or half-day camps with a different theme for each week. If your summer camps are successful, you could also plan “School’s Out” camps for school holidays or teacher workdays when parents might need to work.
• Classes and workshops work well for all ages and help attendees dive deeper into your exhibits. For example, if your art museum hosts a traveling exhibit of a famous painter’s landscapes, you could complement it with a landscape painting workshop. Plan these for weekends or evenings to maximize attendance, unless they’re specifically targeted at audiences that could come during the day (like preschoolers or retirees).

Send surveys to community members and review your museum’s supporter data to decide which programs would be most effective to host. Then, segment your audience so you can promote each program to the supporters who would be most interested in it.

2. Develop a Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy

Besides segmentation, the other key to effectively marketing your museum’s educational programming is to communicate through multiple channels. Getting Attention’s nonprofit marketing guide explains that “while you don’t need to leverage every platform, a multi-channel marketing approach allows you to connect with as many supporters as possible,” boosting response rates and program attendance.

Consider using the following channels to promote your programs:

• The Events page and calendar on your museum’s website
• Email blasts and newsletter updates
• Various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok
• Print communications such as flyers and direct mail

In all of your marketing messages about a specific program, include a link or QR code to its online registration form to make signing up as convenient as possible.

3. Create Streamlined Registration Forms

In addition to making your online registration forms for educational programs widely available, continue streamlining the signup process by designing the forms themselves strategically. To accomplish this, make sure to include:

• Only the most essential form fields concerning participants’ contact details, necessary safety or medical information, and program-specific questions (e.g., for summer camp, you may want to ask about participants’ t-shirt sizes and before-and-after-care options).
• Information about capacity limits, including whether supporters can be waitlisted if the program fills up.
• A secure payment processor that accepts all major credit cards, bank account transfers, and mobile payment apps like PayPal or Venmo.
• Settings that automatically apply discounts, such as membership benefits or one-time promotions.

Once a supporter submits their registration form, send them an automated confirmation message with a mobile-friendly QR code. This way, your team can simply scan the codes to check them in when the program starts.

4. Keep a Unified Calendar of Events

With everything going on at your museum, you’ll need a resource to keep your educational programs and other activities organized. In addition to the previously mentioned public-facing calendar of events on your website, create a more detailed version for internal reference. This will help prevent the overlap of:

• Activity timing, especially for programs that appeal to similar audiences so they can attend as many of your events as possible.
• Staff scheduling to ensure no one has to be in two places at the same time or perform tasks beyond their capacity.
• Event spaces being used—for instance, if your children’s museum needs to set aside a room for a private birthday party next Saturday, plan for your public-facing art workshop to take place in a different location.

Additionally, list all of the supplies you’ll need for each program and attach them to the calendar entries. That way, you can make sure not to exceed your monthly activity budget or overuse resources in limited quantities.

5. Track Data on Your Educational Programs

According to Doubleknot’s museum software guide, reporting and analytics features should be a core part of your organization’s management system. For your educational programs, use these tools to track metrics like:

• Attendance rates for each type of program
• Marketing conversions, or signups gathered from each channel
• Revenue generated from programs that involve fees
• Participant satisfaction, which you can track by sending out surveys at the end of each program

By evaluating these data points, you can learn what you’re doing well according to your community and where you have room for improvement as you hone your planning process over time.

As you organize your museum’s educational programs, make sure you also have a plan for following up with participants. By genuinely thanking attendees for coming and providing additional information about your mission and offerings, you’ll increase the chances that they’ll return to your museum and engage in more activities that help you achieve your goals.

About the Author: Shannon Scanlan, Solutions Engineer

Shannon has been helping nonprofits grow their digital and direct marketing programs and use technology to reach new audiences, raise more, and improve efficiency for over 17 years, working for organizations such as the ACLU, The Clinton Foundation, and The Metropolitan of Art among many others. 

She’s been working at Doubleknot for the past 5 years, helping clients implement Doubleknot solutions to boost revenue and streamline operations so they can focus on what matters most: their mission!