Farmers market data can be a powerful tool to help Market Managers advocate for their market, apply for funding opportunities, and share their market’s successes. MIFMA provides data collection resources and advocacy tools to Michigan Farmers Markets working to capture their economic contributions and share the impacts their market’s make on their community and the farmers, vendors, and shoppers who attend.
Since 2015, MIFMA has been working with Market Managers to foster a culture of data collection and to capture and evaluate their economic contributions and market impacts at a statewide level. MIFMA created the following Data Collection Toolkit for Market Managers who want to collect, analyze, and share data to advance their market’s mission. The Toolkit incorporates best practices learned over the years and takes into consideration common challenges faced when collecting data in a farmers market setting. By breaking the metrics down into beginning and advanced categories, the toolkit is designed to “meet market managers where they are at” with their current capacity and data collection efforts. Whether you’re a novice at data collection or an expert, Market Managers can use this toolkit to help measure their Michigan farmers market!
We recommend starting with the Graduated Menu of Farmers Market Metrics to identify the metrics your market wants to collect based on your market’s capacity and goals for data collection. For each metric selected, view the corresponding Fact Sheet detailing why that metric should be collected and best practices for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on the metric. MIFMA Members also have access to spreadsheet templates to aid in data entry, aggregation, and analysis and several reporting and infographic templates to help markets share their data with target audiences including market sponsors, funders, supporters, and customers! Toolkit customizations and consultations are available for members only on a first come, first serve basis.
For more information about the Data Collection Toolkit or other MIFMA metrics work, please contact us at metrics@mifma.org.
Volunteers can have a significant role at your farmers market, donating their time and expertise to help fulfill the needs of the market. Most market managers will need to rely on volunteers, support staff, or other organizational partners to gather good data at their market. View our Promising Practices for Volunteer Recruitment, Training, and Retention Fact Sheet to help secure volunteers for your data collection efforts!