The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota has a proven record of making an impact on a lot of kids.
Now the museum has been shown to create an impressive economic impact on the community.
Based on its 2022 annual budget of $1.2 million, the museum contributed $5.5 million annually to the local economy.
CEO Louise Dickmeyer said this was the first economic study the organization had done.
“We know the impact we have on children and early learning, but we really wanted to know the impact we have on the regional economy.”
She didn’t have any expectations of what the financial impact would be but said she was impressed with the $5.5 million determination.
And she said that amount has certainly risen, since the study was based on 2022 figures. That year they were still recovering from the pandemic, their membership was 20% lower than it is now and the museum’s budget was lower.
Dickmeyer said the museum, which opened in 2015, has more than 3,000 members, a record high. Their annual visits have also hit new highs, with more than 100,000 visitors a year.
She said the museum draws visitors from a 12-county area as well as visitors from northern Iowa and the Twin Cities.
They were at 2,300 members prior to the pandemic and membership fell to 950 when COVID hit.
Memberships are $140. Kids and their families who can’t afford it can apply for free memberships.
“We work with over 60 community partners that work with families facing barriers and they are able to refer a family to us and they can apply and receive no-cost memberships. We’ve done that since the beginning,” Dickmeyer said.
The museum is slated to continue growing beginning this summer.
“We have plans to expand and use the entire city block. We’ve been working with the city on soil sampling and with DEED to get a grant to do some soil remediation that’s needed for expansion.”
Dickmeyer said the start of construction for an addition to the building could start late this summer. That will add a sensory space, an upgraded shop, studios and more.
“But a big part of it is the outdoor natural play space we’re adding. That will accommodate year round outdoor play. That’s a big thing. Kids need to be outside to experience nature with all their senses. The research on that is compelling.”
Bennett Hanson was one of the master’s students in the MSU urban & regional studies program who conducted the study.
“As part of our master’s in the urban planning program, instead of doing a thesis we’re required to have an urban studio course and we’re contracted to do a typical (urban planning) project.”
He said they began with a lot of heavy research on how to do the analysis and to gather financial and other information. “We also talked to DEED and the U of M Extension and they gave us good ideas,” Hanson said.
He said they got information of all the things the museum purchased with its budget and looked at visitors’ spending locally.
They paid for the right to use a software program that they could input information into and the program would add different multipliers to the spending.
Money tied to the museum spent on items that are likely to be manufactured in the local region would have a higher multiplier than money spent on something that was made elsewhere and simply brought in and sold by a retailer.
Hanson said that while the economic impact number is, in the end, an estimate, the group felt confident in the results. He said the results of economic impact compared to the museum’s budget was pretty much in line with studies done for other museums.