Museum Social Impact in Practice (MSIIP) is a three-year initiative led by the American Alliance of Museums and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services that provides technical assistance to museum professionals seeking to measure their museums’ social impact. MSIIP builds on eight years of experience in groundbreaking museum social impact measurement through the Measurement of Museum Social Impact (MOMSI) project, which concluded in 2023. With leadership from the Utah Division of Arts & Museums (UA&M) and Thanksgiving Point, MOMSI addressed the critical need of establishing best practices for measuring social impact within the museum field, advancing museum practice by measuring the social impact museums have on visitors, and developing a tool for museums to better understand their social impact on individuals and communities. The result was a museum social impact toolkit which provides museums of all sizes and types with the opportunity to measure their own social impact.

Through MSIIP, AAM seeks to accomplish the following:

• Refine systematic ways to measure museum social impact through further editing the museum social impact toolkit produced in 2023
• Assist museums in the building the skills and capacity needed to measure and use social impact data through quality professional development and training opportunities from leaders in the field
• Encourage shared knowledge by creating a community of practice on measuring museum social impact
• Create resources for museums to use social impact data in advocacy efforts

Forty museums have been selected to join the MSIIP cohort. Through professional development and skill-building opportunities, MSIIP cohort museums will learn how to effectively leverage social impact data that helps make the case for museums to various stakeholders and funders. The long-term goal of this initiative is to enhance the entire museum field’s ability to use social impact data to advance their institutions through advocacy and build stronger, more informed relationships with their local community, funders, and stakeholders.

The challenge MSIIP addresses is threefold: 1.) standardizing the way museums measure social impact and their ability to do so successfully using a well-researched and evaluated toolkit; 2.) increasing museum staff capacity to do this work; and 3.) increasing museum professionals’ skills in using social impact data to advocate for museums.

For more information about this initiative, please contact the AAM Social Impact Team at socialimpact [a] aam-us.org.