Performance Analysis and Benchmarking Services

White Oak helps existing museums analyze operating performance and forecasts realistic budgets for future operations for new and expanding museums. White Oak’s economic reports include: Museum Performance Assessments, Strategic Business Plans, Feasibility Studies, Attendance Potential Estimates, Staffing Plans and Pricing and Ticketing Policies. White Oak’s decades of experience and its vast database on museum operations result in realistic yet flexible economic models.

Gate Attendance to Exhibit Sq Footage
Earned Revenue per On site Visitor

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is an important tool for existing museums and help answer the questions: How am I doing? What can I do better? And how should I plan for the future? White Oak uses data from a variety of sources to compare and benchmark your museum against other museums and museum sectors. Data sources include association directories, our database of museum operating statistics, IRS data and customized networks of museums that choose to share data with each other based on client-tailored surveys.

The two charts shown here are examples of how your museum can be compared to other museums using key performance indicators (KPIs). The chart on the top shows that the museum indicated by the red column has exhibit galleries that appear extremely crowded. This is based on the KPI of gate attendance divided by exhibit square footage. The second chart shows that the museum in the red column has extremely low earned revenue per visitor compared to its peers. In both cases, further analysis is needed to determine why the museum’s performance is outside of the norms and whether there are mitigating factors that justify the museum’s performance in that area or require a course adjustment.

Our services include:

Performance Analysis and Benchmarking for a museum’s current operating profile and historic trends and recommendations for future adjustments
Typical year and multi-year operating projections: Attendance, staffing, revenue and expenses
Policy guidance workshops with board and staff to present findings and to align operating profile with mission, vision and values.
Development and review of capital budgets for expansions and new museums for strategic alignment of capital investments with anticipated revenues.

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