GHM Strategic Plan 2020–2025

Mission

As a repository of local history, Greer Heritage Museum (GHM) fosters appreciation for the history and culture of Greer, SC and its surroundings through the educational exhibition of artifacts, the study of local history and genealogy, original research, and compelling storytelling.

Vision

GHM will become an integral part of the educational and cultural fabric of Greer through meaningful and memorable educational experiences that meet the public where they are, transport them to a different place and time, and use the past to inform their present. We will help everyone find their place in the ongoing story that is Greer.

Strategic Guideposts:

Build a team of excited, energetic, engaged supporters.

• We must plan for a transfer of stewardship from one generation to the next.
• Rebuild an active and engaged board of directors.
• Build a team of trained volunteers sufficient to maintain (or expand) open hours.
• Build a team of trained docents who engage visitors with history stories and collection insights in ways that shape critical thinking, challenge false assumptions, and create unexpected delight.
• Build a team of experienced and professional museologists.
• Build financial support to stabilize operations including staff, implement collections management, and enable continuous improvement.

Make meaningful connections.

• Our brand of service is “welcoming, meaningful, and very social.” Our brand for exhibitions is “immersive, unique, and unexpectedly delightful.”
• Be present in and around the city.
• Commit to a strong social media and web presence.
• Create innovative connection opportunities in existing city functions.

Embrace the power of a personal visit.

• Experiencing our collections in meaningful, educational ways is the heart of the visit.
• We will continue to welcome students, scholars, and life-long learners to use primary sources in our Research Center, even as we also expand our online research guidance and resources.
• Programs, events, and rentals reveal the Museum as a place of wonder and are an integral part of our operations.

Be a destination and a center of civic engagement.

• Enhance the Museum’s visibility. Passersby should be able to experience the Museum as “Greer’s history, for the future.”
• Create a rentable social space for community use.
• Systematically enliven and refresh exhibitions and galleries on an ongoing basis with updates and engaging additions.
• Drive traffic from the rest of downtown to GHM.

Inspire students and empower teachers.

• Use history stories and primary sources to help meet educational goals across the curriculum.
• Create a school outreach program using stories to teach skills and to connect students with civic life.
• Offer field-trip, in-museum, and tech-based learning, and search for new and dynamic ways to integrate all three.

Manage our collections.

• Commit to careful collecting practices and rigorous ongoing collection reassessment.
• Identify critical primary source material and manage access for sustainability.
• Create and implement an ongoing Collections Management Policy.
• Create and implement a five-year Exhibit and Facility Improvement Plan.
• Select and implement a single, comprehensive, user-friendly museum management software tool, which should include:
  • Collections management
  • Digital asset management
  • Conservation documentation
  • Web publishing
• Digitize our collection of holdings on an as-needed basis, with a fast track for high-value material based on mission and revenue.
• Periodically evaluate collection revenue opportunities.

Finance and Development.

• Select and implement a simple user-friendly CRM (customer relations management) solution to store contact information and send email and other communications to all constituents.
• Grow the endowment over time to provide 50% of annual support, and build up reserve funds to bolster the funding of projects such as collection management, exhibit renewal, software implementation, etc.
• Develop a robust planned giving program.
• Develop a grants program to identify and pursue opportunities.
• Seek new revenue sources. The key revenue driver will be our ability to gain support by inspiring others with a new compelling vision of transformation to valuable community impact.

Branding, marketing, and business planning.

• Greer is the brand. What the Museum offers are ways to share a passionate commitment to the city’s past, present, and future.
• Market museum activities as something to believe in — a “cause” worth supporting; be seen as an innovative social partner in service to the city.
• “Paint” the town with Greer story content, working with partners whenever possible.
• Develop different ladders of engagement and map and implement constantly-operating ways to move individuals up to the next level.