The Pacific Science Center
Introduction
The pacific science center is a non-profit museum that deals with scientific artifacts. It is located in the Seattle downtown and just next to the Space Needle. Pacific science center is a popular destination in the state in relation to science. The center focuses on environmental ecology including wetland and nature awareness. The center provides travelling exhibits that includes outreach programs, science education vans and even science on wheels. The center has created a niche market primarily centered on science that relates to understanding the necessity for water and natural ecology. In addition, the center provides an ideal setting to teach individuals that seek to become science teachers (Pacific Science Center, 2013). This provides a variety in relation to the organization generating some form of revenue. The mission statement of the pacific science center is to inspire a lifelong interest in science, math and technology by engaging diverse communities through interactive and innovative exhibits and programs. Its vision statement: We envision communities where children and adults are inspired by science, understand its basic principles and bring their scientific curiosity and knowledge to bear in the world (Guidestar).

History The center originated from the US Science pavilion, which was part of the 1962 world fair in Seattle. The pavilion became the World of Science known as the Pacific Science Center. In addition, the world Fair created the Worlds of Art, industry, Commerce and Tomorrow as the themes in the region at the time. The aim was to create a plethora of themes that will appeal to the masses (at least one theme would attract people to the fair). The world of science was located near a landmark in order to bring emphasis to the theme. (The Seattle Foundation) The company has since gone on to become a non-profit organization instead of leasing the center by the Seattle city (Pacific Science Center, 2013). Originally, the building was leased for a dollar a year until 2004, when the building and land deeds were given to the Pacific Science Center (taking full ownership of the facility). This provided the basis for the center to become an independent firm and operate according to the firm’s ideologies.

Financial Overview In terms of finances, the firm is not profit-oriented, which explains the low pricing for leasing its facilities along with its additional factors such as theaters and travelling exhibits. Majority of the revenue generated in 2012 came from travelling exhibits used to depict various parts of history. For instance, in 2012 the center created an exhibit based on ‘China: 7000 years of discovery’, which was used to illustrate the evolution of china throughout the several years. Their recent exhibit was the ‘Tutankhamun: the Golden King and the Great Pharaohs’, which ended in January 2013. (Pacific science center, 2013) As you can see the financial statement of 2012 below, the total revenue is $27,578,112 and the total expenses is $23,329,205 which indicates that pacific science center has $4,248,907 net gain. Although pacific science center (PSC) is an independent not-for-profit educational institution, it still can gain some revenues especially from its program services. (The Seattle Foundation). According to the graphs of key financials below, PSC’s revenue was increased a lot from 2010 to 2012 although the revenue of PSC was down in the beginning of 2010. (MintGlobal) [pic][pic]

SWOT Analysis:
|Strengths: |Weakness: |
|Best science exhibits |Not-for-profit |
|None-profit organization | |
|Great location | |
|Opportunities: |Threats: |
|Increasing revenues |Limited group of visitors |
|Bring exhibitions to other states |Many competitors |

Analysis:
Strengths:
In terms of strengths, the firm possesses one of the best science exhibits in the US, and has become a rival to other science exhibits on the continent. The application of themes by the firm provides a unique outlook and understanding on the various themes that form part of human as well as general science. Focusing on various aspects of science in relation to the environment provides a pull factor in terms of people seeking to understand the elements vital to the world, as well as what people can do to preserve the balance in the global ecology. Another benefit by the firm is their ideology in being a non-profit organization. This means that the firm does not price people exorbitant fees to tour the center or to use their facilities in order to create an exhibit. Their prices reflect the firm’s costs or paying any necessary costs that apply in the center’s operations. The last strength is its great location. The obvious location which is next to the Space Needle in Seattle downtown. It would attract many tourists and get attention from people.
Weaknesses:
One of the main strength of the center happens to be its primary weakness. The fact that the firm is a non-profit organization; it makes it difficult for the firm to generate capital in terms of potential investors. The latter seek to see an organization that can generate revenue, which implies that the investors seek to make a profit from their investments. The fact that the company does not focus on profit generation, the firm is limited in terms of the number of investors it can attract for funding projects as well as other developments of the center. This forces the firm to relay on donations and income from exhibits.

Opportunities: In terms of opportunities, the organization gained some revenues in the past years which I just analyzed before. Its continued gaining in revenue would make PSC a bigger success in the future. Another opportunity is the firm can generate more income by travelling to other states that seek a better understanding on science as well as other related concepts. This can involve holding small exhibitions in other states in order to increase the awareness of the environment. In hindsight, there are people who seek to visit the science center, but cannot visit the center because of convenience (distance and cost to travel). (Pacific Science Center, 2013).
Threats:
In terms of threats, the focus on non-profit may force the center to close because of the lack of suitable character. Though concentrating on one aspect of science increases efficiency, the problem is that it will only appeal to a particular group of science-oriented individuals. This will limit the number of people that will visit the exhibit reducing the popularity of the center. Therefore, concentrating on a particular theme may threaten the future of the center, which will limit the center being able to cover costs (as a non-profit organization). Another threat is that PSC is really hard to be the top one organization in this industry since there are many competitors and they has been making their organization more appropriate than pacific science center.

Recommendations: In terms of recommendation, the center should abolish its non-profit ideologies and develop a strategy that will ensure that it is a self-reliant organization. With the effects of the recession, it is possible for the center to lose funding based on the difficult economic climate. Therefore, the center should begin making strategies that allow the center to make a small profit on its operations in order to have money to fund its operations and become self-sufficient. This will prompt investors to invest in the center and allow them to make a small profit. Limiting the profit will allow the firm to maintain its positive reputation, and additional funding will allow the center to venture into other areas of science, not just nature awareness and ecology. Moreover, I strongly recommend that they should improve their advertisement by adding more posters in schools or create individual event page on Facebook in order to get more people involved. The last recommendation is about the opportunity I talked above, the firm can generate more income by travelling to other states that seek a better understanding on science as well as other related concepts. This can involve holding small exhibitions in other states in order to increase the awareness of the environment. By bringing the center’s exhibit to other states and regions, it will provide a means of the center increasing the awareness of the center and the various exhibit that it provides can become the basis for more people to visit the center in Seattle, as well as create a positive image of the corporation (Pacific Science Center, 2013).

Reference:
Pacific Science Center (2013). About Pacific Science Center. Retrieved from http://www.pacificsciencecenter.org/about
Guidestar. Pacific science center foundation. Retrieved from Seattle University Lemieux Library. http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/91-0750867/pacific-science-center-foundation.aspx
The Seattle foundation. Pacific science center. Retrieved from Seattle University Lemieux Library. http://www.seattlefoundation.org/npos/Pages/PacificScienceCenter.aspx?bv=nposearch
Pacific Science Center (2013). About Pacific Science Center. Retrieved from http://www.pacificsciencecenter.org/News
MintGlobal. Pacific science center foundation. Retrieved from Seattle University Lemieux Library. https://mintglobal.bvdep.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/version-2013522/Report.Build.serv?_CID=100&context=3FTK8W6P14VCBKC&SeqNr=0