Campaign For The Antique Boat Museum
Antique boat Museum Launches
$7.2 million Comprehensive Campaign
On July 1st, 2006 Bud Ames, Chairman of the Antique Boat Museum’s Board of Trustees, announced that the Museum has launched the public phase of its $7.2 million Campaign for the Antique Boat Museum. “It is with great pride and a sense of great challenge that I announce that in the silent phase of this campaign we have raised $5 million and we must raise the final $2.2 million in the next 18 months.”
The mission of the Antique Boat Museum is to collect,
preserve, exhibit and interpret boats and other objects related to the history
of boating in North America and to enhance public understanding and
appreciation of the contributions of the St. Lawrence River region to North
America's boating history.
Mr. Ames went on to say, “the goal of this Museum is to be an engaged and vital cultural institution with strong links to other educational and cultural communities. We keep faith with our mission by not only caring for our collections but by interpreting the historical, cultural, economic and technical contexts of these artifacts for a broad range of audiences. In so doing we enrich the social and economic fabric of North America.”
To meet these goals, the Museum’s Long Range Planning Committee identified four key areas of its operation in which strategic initiatives need to be undertaken: public programming, endowment, annual revenues, and infrastructure.
As well as preserving its artifacts the Museum’s other core responsibility is to enhance public understanding of what these collections represent. To fulfill this educational mission, the Museum must continue to develop public programming which appeals to a broad audience and is of high intellectual and historical quality. Its new exhibits exemplify this as do its partnerships with other educational institutions including regional elementary schools, institutions of higher learning, and other Museums.
Relative to other institutions of its size and responsibilities, its $2.8 million endowment is not sufficient as it contributes less than 8% of operating income. At comparable institutions, endowment income makes up nearly half of their operating budgets. Because its endowment contributes only a small percentage of current operations revenue, the Museum must make every effort to increase its endowment and build its annual revenue sources. Incorporating both efforts into the Comprehensive Campaign was a conscious effort to do just that.
The Museum must provide adequate infrastructure for its unique watercraft collection. The Long Range Planning Committee has identified the Yacht House and Shoreline Improvement Project, adequate storage facilities for its collection not on display, as well as additional strategic acquisitions for campus expansion as its top three capital priorities. These projects will accommodate and care for its collection, in particular La Duchesse, its largest and most significant artifact and an essential part of its plans to increase revenue through broadening audience appeal.
The Museum generates over 40% of its annual revenue stream through Friends of the Museum Annual Giving and general membership. Because Annual Giving sustains this Museum we must make every effort to nurture and expand its membership and Annual Giving which fund its Chief Curator, Educator, Assistant Registrar and Facilities Supervisor.
To meet these needs the Museum has launched the Campaign for the Antique Boat Museum.
PUBLIC PROGRAMMING AND ENDOWMENT
$1 million to Endow Public Programming and In-Water Collection
$1 million for Unrestricted Endowment ($600,000 can be future gifts)
ANNUAL REVENUES
$1.5 million in Annual Giving
$250,000 to fund the creation of a Development Office
$100,000 to fund Campaign Costs
INFRASTRUCTURE
$2.5 million for Yacht House and Shoreline Improvement Project
$450,000 for Collections Storage
$400,000 for Strategic Acquisitions
$7.2 Million Comprehensive Campaign Goal
In speaking about the public phase of the campaign Teddy McNally, incoming Chairman of the Board, spoke about stewardship. “It has been often noted by this Museum that stewardship means taking care of something that we don’t own, but that we care deeply about. That’s an apt definition for both this Museum and the generosity of our community of donors who support us. As we face the challenge of raising the final $2.2 million in the next eighteen months, we look to our community of members and friends for their abiding stewardship.”
