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Kittitas County Historical Museum 114 E Third Ave Ellensburg, WA 98926 509.925.3778 www.kchm.org The Kittitas County Historical Museum is a private, nonprofit charitable organization. With only two paid staff and 17 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. In 2018, we ended the year with 8,201 visitors. Our Museum Monthly Attendance numbers continue to show multi-year highs in our visitor attendance, and while we have had a slight decline as of July 31, 2019, (showing only 4,248 overall visitors compared to 4,397 in 2018), we expect by year's end we will exceed the total number of 2018. 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 1,156% of the anticipated amount for 2019, and we have already received 189% compared to last year's amount. Gift shop sales are already exceeded the expected annual income at a rate of 159%. We have invested more into the gift shop in 2019 which has in turn increased sales. We plan to increase our offerings again for 2020, tying to events and programming. 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 third year we have done this, and we have had more visitors overall than the previous year: 116 versus 85. 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 2020 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.