My Primary Research Question for This Summer Was, Does Having a Social Impact Mission Create

Julia Bache

Wharton ’19

As a University Scholar, I study the business of historic preservation. My research focuses onthe financial, operational, and marketing aspects of historic house museums. With shifting consumer demands, the relevance of historic house museums has come into question. Millennials do not care about history like the aging Baby Boomers do, and many house museums seem to only preserve the wealthy white male part of history.

My primary research question for this summer was, does having a social impact mission create positive financial returns for historic house museums? Most house museums have missions that include preserving history and perhaps educating the public about that history. A few house museums go beyond these items and pursue deeper missions of empowerment, service, and leader-building.

For the first component of my research, I utilized GuideStar’s nonprofit database to identify historic house museums with and without social impact focuses by analyzing and categorizing their mission statements. I then compared the financial summary statistics of social impact house museums against non-social impact house museums.

In this study, I found that house museums with social impact components generate statistically significant higher revenues as well as statistically significant higher expenses. This makes sense because social impact initiatives can spur people to give greater donations and provide more support. At the same time, operating impact initiatives in addition to traditional house museum operations can be more expensive. While the average net revenue was higher for non-social impact house museums, this finding was not statistically significant.

In addition to my financial comparison, I conducted case studies of three historic house museums with social impact initiatives.

1) The Pearl S. Buck Historic Home in Perkasie, PA continues Pearl Buck’s humanitarian and child sponsorship work in 6 Asian countries. They also advocate for diversity and inclusion in the United States. 2) Grumblethorpe in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA trains youth in entrepreneurship, leadership, and other life skills through its youth volunteer program. This program also gives Germantown youth a summer job and reduces their chances of getting in trouble on the streets. 3) The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in Savannah, GA is the home where the founder of Girl Scouts was born. This house museum’s mission is the same as Girl Scouts’ mission: to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Girls on the house tour or programs are empowered to lead and find their creativity and passions.

Through these case studies, I learned that social impact initiatives increase community support and engagement in these historic sites. Grant revenue, donations, volunteer hours increase often dramatically with social impact initiatives. While costs sometimes increase, the investments are worth it because these homes are valued by their communities and are making a difference in the world.