Category: Fund Development

We will soon be kicking off our capital campaign! Through the museum planning process our financial goals are becoming more clearly defined. We continue to have operating expenses for the project that are similar to start-up costs for any new business. We are grateful to all the volunteers who have been donating time so generously. The project has been operating on volunteer passion for several years now with the recent addition of hired consultants who have assisted with marketing, museum planning, architecture and other specialties. The project has also undertaken some minor construction costs to make the building safe for people touring and for guests of our roundtable discussions and PEL Labs. Every dollar we raise now helps to propel this project forward. It is also our hope to ready ourselves for hiring our first employees, beginning with an executive director, in the coming months.

With the autumn season upon us, please consider the Great River Children’s Museum in your year end giving plans.

St. Cloud Unschooling Network recently reached out to the Great River Children’s Museum through their leader Mandy Spiczka with exciting news. They had heard about a non-profit group bringing a children’s museum to the area and voted to give their annual fundraising dollars to the Great River Children’s Museum! The group of homeschooling friends, which includes children from babies to teens as well as their parents, meets on a regular basis at the Great River Regional Library in St. Cloud, another community organization the group has elected to support in the past.

Every year the students and parents in the group use their talents to create arts and crafts which they sell to other group members, friends and family during their holiday market. They are able to help each other do their holiday shopping while learning a wide array of academic and life skills. When board members Glen Palm and Sara McKeever arrived for the presentation of the donation, the sale was wrapping up and the children were happily playing.

The parents expressed their excitement about the museum project. They wanted to support an organization that shares their values of creating space in children’s lives for learning through play and the importance of adults creating, exploring and discovering the world alongside children. We were humbled and honored by their gift of $355.25! The funds will be used to prepare space in the new building where community members can come to plan and dream about the museum we will create together.

We have reached our matching goal! Releasing these funds is a great step for our organization. It has been a wonderful way to engage smaller donors to help them make a larger impact. We hope another donor will come forward with a new match to help us continue this momentum!

We have met with a board developer, museum planner, and professional fundraiser to discuss how they can help our group as we go forward with this big project. They have given us bids for their work which the board will consider at our next meeting. All have wonderful skills and would be assets to our project. We will need to decide what makes the most sense for our next steps as we look forward to taking ownership of the Liberty Bank building in December. Our immediate fundraising needs are for initial costs estimated at $250,000. These funds will pay for such things as professional consultants, building maintenance, and community outreach. We will then focus on covering the cost of renovations and exhibits, which will be near $10 million.

We trust that as building designs are being developed, local businesses will choose to sponsor various features and exhibits. We will be reaching out to businesses in the coming months. In the meantime, if you are connected to an organization that would like to discuss sponsoring an exhibit, please reach out via email to info@greatriverce.org to be connected to one of our board members.

Donations are always being accepted to help with startup costs.  Send your tax deductible donation now via PayPal or mail a check to our treasurer at:

Great River Children’s Exploratorium
℅ Greg Reigstad
1126 7th Avenue North
Saint Cloud, MN 56303

The Great River Children’s Exploratorium has a $25,000 matching pledge to add to our development fund! The first $25,000 in donations will be matched dollar for dollar by an anonymous donor. This is a wonderful way to double the impact of your gift. Send your tax deductible donation now via PayPal or mail a check to our treasurer at:

Great River Children’s Exploratorium
℅ Greg Reigstad
1126 7th Avenue North
Saint Cloud, MN 56303