Now more than ever, legislators and funders need to know just how your museum impacts your community. You can start with a just few key pieces of data to personalize and complete our basic template. Then get creative – you can put the data on your museum or organization’s letterhead, add photos of visitors enjoying the museum, or add additional data that helps make the case about the value of your museum in your community.

Many museums and organizations have created an Economic Impact Statement for their museum or several museums they represent. See these samples.

You can also use our template letter to share your museum’s economic impact with your members of Congress, with just a few clicks.

Basic Template

ECONOMIC IMPACT STATEMENT
for
[Name of Your Institution]

My museum employs _____ (#) people in our community.

My museum spends $ ____ annual budget each year on goods and services in our community.

My museum serves _____ (#) visitors each year, including % from out of town.

My museum serves _____ (#) schoolchildren each year through school visits to museums.

Admission fee: $ _____

Museums are economic engines:

• Museums support more than 726,000 American jobs.
• Museums contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year.
• Seventy-six percent of all U.S. leisure travelers participate in cultural or heritage activities such as visiting museums. These travelers spend 60 percent more money on average than other leisure travelers.
• The economic activity of museums generates more than $12 billion in tax revenue, one-third of it going to state and local governments. Each job created by the museum sector results in $16,495 in additional tax revenue.
• Every direct job at a museum supports an additional job in the economy. This is a higher rate than many other industries.
• Museums and other nonprofit cultural organizations return more than $5 in tax revenues for every $1 they receive in funding from all levels of government.