Garden Benchmarking is a simple to use, seriously powerful benefit of your organization's membership in the American Public Gardens Association.
GETTING STARTED | SURVEY QUESTIONS | "HOW TO" VIDEOS | ENTER DATA
Hundreds of gardens have entered data into the platform, allowing you to compare your organization's position to peer organizations in your region, and across the country.
SHARE – Enter Your Data
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"Benchmarking shows not only what we're best at, but also where there's room for improvement to help the bottom line… Without Benchmarking, it's a lot more work for a lot more people." |
When entering your data, use the most recent fiscal year that closed in the period represented. We base this assuming that your fiscal year is denoted by the last month your fiscal year closes in (ex. last month of FY is December of 2017 = FY17).
We have short PDFs to help you Get Started and you can download the Survey Questions to compile your data before siting down to enter it. You can also watch some helpful "How To" Videos.
If you have already entered data into the system, the "Copy Data" feature allows you to quickly import the previous year's data so you only need to update anything that's changed.
Your garden's specific data is always private and confidential – it is never shared with anyone.
All results are shown as aggregate data and a minimum of five gardens are needed for any aggregate.
COMPARE – Use the Results
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"Click one button and you can have your own slide deck tailored to your garden." |
Compare your garden's baselines to other peer gardens. Data filters allow you to adjust for comparable gardens of your size – in your region and across the country.
One click can provide specialized, personalized, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint Reports and Presentations.
You can watch some helpful "How To" Videos to take advantage of these simple features.
We base this assuming that your fiscal year is denoted by the last month your fiscal year closes in (ex. last month of FY is December of 2017 = FY17).
• Structure and justify your capital campaign
• Prove your garden’s impact to your local, regional, and national councils
• Enhance your budget, needs assessment, or project narrative when building a grant/funding proposal
• Reveal large-scale potential such as staffing, education, or volunteer needs
• Develop informed strategies and make important decisions regarding staffing, membership/visitation, income/expense ratios, governance, financials, facilities, education, and exhibits.
• Easily share this pertinent information with your Board or staff by exporting information in a variety of formats including PowerPoint, MS Word, PDF, and MS Excel.
• And so much more!
Your garden must enter data to the platform to access benchmarking results.
BE AWARE – Keep up with Industry Trends
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"Aggregate data tells the powerful story about public gardens… You can establish baseline potentials: what fundraising could be; what attendance should be; what staffing levels are appropriate." |
The power of data reveals industry trends based upon real world information, not speculation. When you have the benchmarks from dozens of peer gardens, you have seriously powerful information.
