Canopy’s mid-year retrospective: What themes and trends are we seeing in our work with cultural attractions across the U.S. this year?
The first six months of 2025 have been a wild ride: ‘Uncertainty’ is one word that has come up over and over again, encompassing many of the challenges our clients are facing. And yet — we all seem to be figuring out how best to live with the unpredictability and tumult. As our team looks back on the questions, issues, and successes we’ve seen and heard out in the field, here are a few of our takeaways:
On Business Planning:
Attendance is Down. Many of our clients are having “softer” years — lower attendance — this year than previously. It’s hard to attribute it to a single cause, but our topline look at a few different markets indicates that weather is certainly a factor. In aggregate, much of the country has endured a hotter, wetter spring and summer than last year. We’ve heard anecdotal reports from a few clients that attendance and business is softer in election years than other years. And, of course, economic uncertainty is contributing to lower attendance as well. That said, some local attractions appear to be benefiting from the trend of guests staying closer to home.
Collections Matter. We’re hearing more conversations in zoos and aquariums about having the right collection versus the biggest collection. Determining the right collection means honing in on what makes sense in terms of both guest delight and mission impact.
Public Funding Is At Risk. Given the larger economic picture nationally, including federal government cuts, we’re starting to see more downstream impacts — especially with our clients who are still publicly operated or have a larger public funding reliance. Public partners are feeling the squeeze. The full impact of what the new federal budget will mean is not clear yet, but it’s almost certain that public funding support will be tighter and more competitive. Planning now for the next four years will be critical.
But, on a positive note, we have also seen a willingness from cultural attractions to move ahead with projects, including…
On Strategic Planning:
Sticking to Your Mission is Critical. Strategic Planning is more important than ever, as cultural institutions recognize the value of strengthening their mission, vision, and goals. Despite what we are reading in the news, many — if not most — organizations are staying true to their values and their mission. Some of the work may be called by a different name, but organizations remain committed to living their values with their guests and staff.
Create Space for Dialogue. Many of our biggest planning successes this year have resulted from the simple but critical act of bringing people into dialogue with each other. Almost without fail, we’ve uncovered more shared priorities and agreement amongst stakeholders than our clients expected going in. A great example from this spring was the stakeholder engagement we facilitated for Land Between the Lakes, where we’re working on a Children’s Forest project, which included our first-ever youth focus group (thanks to a group of Lyon County 5th graders).
The fact that we’re seeing more collaboration, more initiatives developing, and more community partnerships forming gives us much-needed encouragement for the future of cultural institutions everywhere amidst a tumultuous time.
Focus on Priorities. Given all the uncertainty — both financially and politically — around us, understanding and defining organizational priorities and setting clear goals is more important than ever. Being all things to all people is not a viable or smart option during these times (or ever, for that matter). Bringing people together around a focused, shared direction helps drive greater impact.
Timing Horizons Have Shortened. It used to be that we saw five-year strategic plans; now, most organizations are looking at shorter planning windows of three years, with some relying more heavily on annual plans. Mission, vision, and values can stand the test of time, but goals and strategies need to be updated more frequently.
Some Project Highlights:
– Launching the American Public Gardens Association’s Strategic Plan 2030 at the Annual Conference in June.
– Developing a comprehensive Strategic Business Plan, our signature offering, for the storied McKee Botanical Garden.
– Expanding our client base to include new types of organizations, such as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
– Continuing our Leadership & Organizational Assessment work to foster stronger cultures and teams at institutions across the country, including a recent New Leader Transition Workshop at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
– Kicking off a conservation strategic planning project with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Family of Parks.
– Business Planning at Woodland Park Zoo, which included an evaluation of their revenue portfolio in advance of a major re-imagination of their site.
- The team was thoughtful, appreciative, and engaged at multiple levels of the process, and they helped us refine our workflow in fresh and interesting ways.
- Business planning usually follows a set timeline, but in this case, we had to evaluate programs and site opportunities without that constraint. We created something new — a “concept index” — to model revenue programs independently. It was the first time we tried this approach; it turned out to be a useful way to articulate the impact of each idea on its own, and something that we’ll carry forward with future projects.
- A big outcome of the project: Woodland Park is such a successful zoo that our analysis showed limited room for significant attendance growth. While some growth is possible, they’re better positioned to focus on increasing revenue rather than visitor numbers, since they already have strong market penetration. That knowledge will drive their strategic direction moving forward.
We’re proud of the work we’ve done with so many different types of clients around the country, and we’re looking forward to an equally busy second half of the year. Questions, or interested in learning more about our work? Send us a message.
