GLAZER CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Dream it. Be it.

In May 2016, Jennifer Stancil, the new president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa, Florida was considering further steps to take toward her goal of making the downtown museum an educational and entertainment destination for children and their families. The CEO had been hired on November 23, 2015 with a mandate to rebrand the museum as a world-class learning environment for children and families. A winner of Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2012 Nonprofit Organization of the Year, the museum was well respected, yet it faced challenges in attempting to increase memberships and visitor volume, collaborate with local competitors and partners, and raise funds. Executing the just-completed strategic plan would require a huge effort, since the surrounding community was not very aware of Glazer Children’s Museum’s purpose and myriad activities. The museum needed to develop and maintain stronger ties with other Tampa museums, schools, daycare centers, sports teams, hospitals, universities and more. Very soon after she began her job as CEO, Stancil had started working on a development plan to support her many programmatic ideas, including a multimedia art lab, activities that tied in with the city’s annual Gasparilla Festival, and other initiatives. By spring 2016, she had started to work closely with museum members, competitors, customers, and partners to define the museum’s meaning and value. She also started to consider how the museum could capitalize on its beautiful downtown Tampa location in this rapidly-growing city.