Force Multipliers: Forging Purposeful Partnerships and Cross-Sector Campaigns

Excerpt from an article published by the American Alliance of Museums and written by Everson Director of Marketing & Communications Kaziah Searles: 

Most museums are working with small teams and tight budgets, while expectations for accessibility and community engagement continue to grow. This creates a challenge: how can museums increase impact without increasing resources? One answer: building relationships outside the institution.

Strategic partnerships allow museums to expand their reach, attract new audiences, and increase their visibility in ways traditional marketing often cannot. Most importantly, they embed museums more deeply in community life. The best partnerships move from simple exchanges to serving as a foundation for sustainability and growth.

Over the past year at the Everson Museum of Art, we have built partnerships by identifying organizations that engage audiences we want to reach and then prioritizing visibility and impact.As a museum in downtown Syracuse, New York, known for its architecture, ceramics collection, and art, we know those factors are vital to our success.

Developing those personas helped us identify partners in tourism, education, entertainment groups, and libraries, as well as more unique partners such as a chocolatier, a high-end residential building group, and others. Through these persona-focused partnerships, we’ve extended our reach beyond our own channels, introduced the museum to new audiences, and strengthened our role in the region’s cultural and civic ecosystem.