About the Project

AAM collaborates in the "Nonprofit Listening Post Project" directed by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University. This nationwide project keeps a finger on the pulse of the nonprofit sector through periodic surveys of social service agencies (family and children services, homes for the aged, community development groups, etc.) and arts organizations (theaters, orchestras and museums). More than a thousand community-based organizations serve as listening posts—the "eyes and ears" of the sector, tracking the critical challenges to nonprofits and identifying creative, innovative responses from the field. The goals of this ongoing project include improving nonprofit organizations by equipping their leaders with leading-edge knowledge of the field, identifying innovations, improving public awareness of the challenges faced by the nonprofit sector, and advocacy on behalf of the sector.

Download this fact sheet for more details or visit the Listening Post website.

Recent Findings

• 73% of museums experienced health benefit cost increases from 2008 to 2009. In many cases,  "America’s health insurance crisis has become a crisis of survival for America’s nonprofit organizations."
• In 2008, 46% of museums engaged in some form of policy advocacy or lobbying, vs. 73% of other nonprofits in human service, community development, and the arts.
• Right now, 40% of nonprofits are experiencing "severe" or "very severe" economic stress.
• 39% of nonprofits (including museums) report an increase in volunteer hours since the start of the current recession; 48% anticipate an increased reliance on volunteers during the next year (FY2010), while 33% expect to cut some paid members of their staffs
• During the winter of 2008-09, while Congress debated the economic stimulus, America’s museums and other nonprofits identified more than $166 billion in “shovel-ready” projects, waiting for support to start adding jobs and building communities.

For a full list of recent research findings visit the Listening Post Findings and Data page.

How Your Museum Can Participate

AAM has been a partner in the Listening Post Project since 2004, making sure that museums have a voice in the national debate about the future of nonprofit organizations. Participation in the project is easy: all your museum has to do is respond to periodic soundings (short, on-line questionnaires—usually 20 minutes or less to complete) on topics ranging from governance, finances and operations to the role of nonprofits in American society.

In general, the Listening Post Project aims for about one sounding a quarter. Participants receive an advance copy of any published analysis and, whenever possible, benchmarking reports about the museum field and their particular organization—plus the knowledge that they are helping both the museum field and the nonprofit sector in general.

For more details about becoming a participant, download this brochure, contact the project team at listeningpostproject@jhu.edu or (410) 516-4363, or contact Philip M. Katz at AAM (pkatz@aam-us.org).