The Archives, Libraries and Museums Alliance UK (ALMA-UK) has published the results of extensive research into all existing economic studies. Behind this lies an extensive review of 60 economic impact research and consultations with people from across the sector.

The report means that for the first time the museums and galleries sector has an overview and rating of existing economic impact tools.  

Read more about the project and recent developments on the ALMA-UK website.

Economic Impact Toolkit now available!

A major new tool which enables archives and museums to accurately assess their economic impact has been launched by ALMA-UK and is now available on the ALMA-UK website. The Economic Toolkit’s publication is of particular importance during these difficult financial times as it will enable museums and archives to demonstrate to funders, and the wider community, the positive impact that their services have on their local and regional economies.

The piloting of the toolkit has shown that it is easy and speedy to use, taking no more than five minutes to enter customer data. Key elements include:

• as an electronic resource, all calculations for user museums or archives are undertaken automatically and has in-built processes to identify and iron-out any anomalies;
• unlike other tools it captures volunteer contributions and is able to assign a value to this element
• it converts all impacts into an overall, combined assessment for an organisation, expressing this as a jobs created figure, an expenditure figure and a value-added impact figure

The toolkit has been piloted in all four nations of the UK and is now freely available on the ALMA-UK website for museums and archives to use electronically.