LT-2018-024-Kittitas County Historical Society, INC.

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The Kittitas County Historical Museum is a private, nonprofit charitable organization. With only two paid staff and 25 volunteers, we plan to continue building awareness of the museum, which will reflectively increase our further sustainability. In 2013, we embarked on a new advertising campaign after having been denied funding the previous year. Through the new program we saw a positive response from visitors. Overall, we saw a consistent 25-28% increase in attendance yearly, especially in our targeted market. Our museum attendance nearly doubled from 4,975 in 2013 to 8,697 in 2015, and while 2016 decreased in visitation to 7,359, it was a higher annual visitation rate than previous years. Our Museum Monthly Attendance numbers continue to show multi-year highs in our visitor attendance, and as of August 31, 2017, we have had 5,119 visitors compared to 4,898 in 2016. We have had a slight decline in our visitation overall and while we might not meet the intended goal of 12,000 visitors in 2017, we have and will still reach thousands more through our digital marketing. We have also had yearly increases in donations to the museum and gift shop sales as a result of the increased visitation. Our donations are at 78% of the anticipated amount, and we have already received 64% compared to last year's amount. Gift shop sales are already exceeded the expected annual income at a rate of 125%. We have invested more into the gift shop in 2017 which has in turn increased sales. We plan to increase our offerings again for 2018, tying to events and programming. The Museum also plans to publish a couple books on local history. The gift shop will also be redesigned in early 2018. As another direct result of increased visitation, the museum has experimented with its hours to meet the needs of the community. For example, the Museum was open for 3 Sundays this year to coincide with major events (Spirit of the West, Jazz in the Valley, and the Kittitas County Fair/Ellensburg Rodeo). These openings have resulted in increased visitation to the museum as a whole, with an audience that often has never had the opportunity to visit previously due to timing. This is the second year we have done this, and we have had more visitors overall than the previous year: 87 versus 52. Most visitors had not been in our museum before and took the opportunity of the special hours to visit. We also provide an evening venue for events and meetings. Further hour changes are being discussed for 2018 to coincide with more events, including Girls Night Out, Buskers in the Burg, and more, in addition to taking a more visible presence in the community by hosting booths at events throughout the County. By continuing to build on a successful model, we plan to attract a new audience that has had an increased interest in the Kittitas County Historical Museum, Ellensburg, and Kittitas County. Through the months of June to August 2017, we have had a noticeable increase in visitors from the Seattle -Tacoma area and the Portland area. Whether it was indicated in print or verbally, we found that most of these visitors were day-trippers (-75%) with another destination, such as Spokane or British Columbia. Others (-25%) were staying overnight in Ellensburg while