Carroll Starr Endowment
Midway Village Museum is fortunate to be accepted into the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois Carroll Starr Endowment Challenge. If Midway Village Museum can raise $150,000 by October 2018, then the Community Foundation will award the Museum an additional $50,000. The $200,000 endowment account for Midway Village Museum at the Community Foundation will support the mission of Midway Village Museum in perpetuity.
Midway Village Museum, as Rockford’s history museum, educates everyone in the heritage of their community. This Museum is unique in Rockford. Since local history is not taught in the public schools, the Museum takes on this role, enriching the curriculum. This is important, because history education is like an endowment. It provides the foundation we need so that future generations will build a stronger community. By endowing the Museum, we are endowing the future, educating our children about their roots and traditions.
Midway Village Museum links the past to the future. It provides that bridge of understanding to help everyone develop a deeper understanding of the legacy we have received. A gift to the Carroll Starr Endowment Challenge will be a legacy to future generations.
Endowments are key to the Museum’s future. As government support continues to decline, Midway Village Museum must have other sources of support to make sure our history survives for future generations. History preservation is forever; the Museum needs a source of support that will last far into the future.
Building an endowment is an increasingly common goal among charities of all sizes. In fact, the number of organizations nationwide with endowments has doubled in the past few years. Donors know that establishing an endowment marks a point of fiscal maturity in an organization, indicating that it is thinking strategically about its future and about its role in the community.
An endowment fund at the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois can put Midway Village Museum on a stronger financial footing by providing assured income today, tomorrow, and always. The Museum’s assets are safeguarded by the Community Foundation forever and annual income supports Midway Village Museum’s mission in perpetuity. Moreover, a fund at the Community Foundation will provide an attractive giving option for those donors that wish to include Midway Village Museum in their estate planning and, most important, guarantees that a donor’s wishes will always be honored.