Transportation key to Betty Brinn Children’s Museum relocation

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Milwaukee‘s Betty Brinn Children’s Museum should consider a new location near highways and public transit with room to grow while creating a clear fundraising campaign, a new report recommends.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum in a new report commissioned by the museum found the institution, when considering what to do as its lease is set to expire in 2032, should model its plans on what similar children’s museums around the country have done. The vision for the future should at least consider what the museum needs now and what it might need in the next 15 years. 

Within that vision, Betty Brinn would do well to pick a location that’s easily accessible to patrons and be comfortable with getting creative in considering new possible sites, pointing out another museum that relocated to a state park. Wherever the new building may be, the museum should think about how easy it is for a wide variety of patrons to get there.

As far as raising capital goes, the report recommends setting a fundraising campaign timeline that allows private donors, corporations and foundations enough time to pitch in, noting other campaigns usually lasted four to six years. The museum would do well to break ground once it reaches about 80% of its fundraising goal.

The report doesn’t give a recommendation for how much money should be raised or how large the new facility should be, but the current downtown lakefront property includes about 10,500 square feet of exhibit space, bringing in about 169,000 visitors in 2024.

Overall museum admissions have slightly increased from 163,000 in 2019, with a sharp dip during the COVID-19 pandemic in between. Free or reduced-price experiences have also seen steady admissions growth since 2021 and represented 32% of total admissions in 2025.

Free or reduced-price experiences have steadily grown since 2021 and represented 32% of total admissions in 2025.

“As museum officials position the organization as an important contributor to early childhood education, the accessibility of the museum to all children regardless of their financial status cannot be ignored,” the report noted.

All but 5% of museum visitors are from Wisconsin, with 95% of in-state visitors coming from Milwaukee and its four surrounding counties.

The museum’s annual revenue and spending both are about $3 million in a typical year. The largest revenue streams in 2024 were general contributions and admissions, a combined 46% of total revenue.

Revenue has fluctuated between 2019 and 2024, dipping in 2020 and again in 2022, but expenses only outpaced revenue in 2019 and 2022, coming to a combined deficit of roughly $700,000. Across those six years however, the museum made up for the deficit. In 2021 alone the institution generated a roughly $1.5 million surplus, according to the report.

Unaudited 2025 revenues also show a roughly $247,000, or 10%, increase in revenues compared to 2019.