Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Drive Month
More than half of our 194 Smithsonian Affiliates participate in Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live, an annual program which will take place this year on September 27th. If you haven’t registered yet, please email:
Many of those Affiliates offer the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program as a benefit to their museum members. This year, we’re launching a Smithsonian Membership Drive in the month of September to provide Affiliates with ways to add new members to their membership programs. We hope the following toolbox will help you turn visitors into new members!
- Host an open house or behind-the-scenes tour of your collections and end the tour with a table with membership materials and staff to help visitors sign up.
- Highlight artifacts on loan from the Smithsonian: we can help with language and images- use this information in an enewsletter with the Smithsonian Affiliate logo identifying your organization as a Smithsonian Affiliate. Include a link to how they can become dual members of the Smithsonian and your organization.
- Highlight upcoming Smithsonian programs and exhibitions- make the connection between the Smithsonian and your members. (Email us if you would like to plan an Smithsonian collaboration- that’s what we’re here for!)
- Screen Smithsonian Channel programming at an evening event; we can send free Smithsonian Magazines that you can give away to visitors who sign up for membership.
- Build the membership drive around already scheduled events, and host a new member raffle for a free Smithsonian membership (a one year membership courtesy of Smithsonian Affiliations.)
- Tap into a different audience with a Scavenger Hunt, complete with Smithsonian objects that have been 3D printed. Learn more here.
- Set up a photo booth for new members to take a picture and use a Smithsonian Affiliate hashtag to share on social media. On Museum Day, share these on a backdrop #smithsonianaffiliate or #museumdaylive !
- Use our new Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program logo on your materials. Contact us to get the files.
We will send out a Smithsonian souvenir prize package to each Smithsonian Affiliate that sells more than 50 Smithsonian dual memberships during September. If you sell more than any other Affiliate, your organization will receive a special program courtesy of Smithsonian Affiliations!
Want to know more about offering the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Program? Here are the benefits you can offer to your members:
- Smithsonian Magazine (one year subscription) or Air & Space Magazine (six issues)
- 10% discount on all Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
- Travel and study tour opportunities from Smithsonian Journeys
- Free admission to Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City
- A personalized Smithsonian-Affiliate branded membership card
- 10% discount on all IMAX tickets at the Smithsonian
- iPad App for Smithsonian Magazine subscribers
- Reciprocal Membership to other Smithsonian Affiliate members, if your organization has signed up to participate. For a full list of Smithsonian Affiliates participating in the Smithsonian Affiliate Reciprocal Membership program, visit: https://affiliations.si.edu/docs/reciprocal-members-2.24.14.pdf
Would you like to chat? In the next two weeks, Smithsonian Affiliations staff will be setting up regional calls to discuss details for the Smithsonian Affiliate Membership Drive Month. We will follow up with an eAlert with dates and times.
For more information on the program and the membership, please contact your National Outreach Manager, or Christina DiMeglio Lopez,
