Opportunity:
In 2024, the Museum of Life and Science team embarked on a strategic planning process with Canopy to shape the Museum’s future, leveraging strong community engagement and excellent guest experiences. Our team focused on designing and facilitating a process that served the organization’s distinct character — one centered on thoughtful decision-making, intentional inclusivity, and a spirit of curiosity and perpetual improvement. The Museum was further bolstered by a shared central priority, which quickly surfaced as a singular Plan Goal: reinforcing the organization’s role as a Community Connector. That clear vision resulted in a plan with purpose, energy, and drive which the whole team can rally behind.
Photo credit: Museum of Life + Science
Project Highlights:
An Inclusive Process
The strategic planning team, comprising staff and Board members, ensured the plan was both practical and aspirational. Broad engagement delivered 300+ touch points with staff, Board, volunteers, and community stakeholders. Engagement methods included interviews, surveys, live engagement at all-staff meetings, small group listening sessions, Board dinners, and planning workshops, providing a wide array of opportunities to offer feedback in a variety of forms.
Community Engagement
The Museum aims to build on its success in community inclusion, enhancing programming and co-creation. Internal and external collaboration defines the Museum’s culture and aspirations, driving the success of this plan. Partners new and old gathered for two stakeholder roundtables in support of the planning process: This engagement informed the team’s decision-making, deepened existing partner relationships, and forged new connections for the Museum to continue as they put the plan in motion.
Data-Informed Strategy
Staying true to the Museum’s scientific roots, we collected and analyzed extensive quantitative and qualitative data during this process. The data revealed strengths, such as the Museum’s success in reflecting the diverse demographics of its community, surpassing regional and national benchmarks in inclusivity. The data also allowed the team to coalesce around key growth opportunities that align with the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
Result:
The Museum now has a new strategic plan that outlines a roadmap for the next five years. The establishment of a single Plan Goal has created clarity amongst the team on a shared priority, and has highlighted where they need to allocate resources to achieve that goal. The process also deepened internal and external relationships that will be critical to the Museum of Life and Science’s success in pursuing this plan.
“We were so pleased with our Canopy engagement, resulting in a new Strategic Plan for the Museum of Life and Science. We were pleased with the data and quantitative analysis Canopy was able to provide, and we’ve been able to leverage that data in so many ways — sharing with funders and legislators, as well as helping our team to really see the positive impact we are having on our community. We were fortunate to work with Anna Musun-Miller, whose skills in both management and communications are among the best I’ve experienced in my career. Canopy was a responsive, positive partner who left us with a useful set of tools, including a Strategic Plan we can take great pride in sharing with our community.”
— Carrie Heinonen, President & CEO
