2019 was an eventful year at the Museum through programs, tours, and our efforts to maintain the Museum and the gardens for you and future generations to enjoy. One collaboration that proved to be particularly positive for the community was the Music4U! concerts held for free in the gardens by members of the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra. The Daffodil Stroll was a resounding success. All of these programs we offer to help offset the ongoing need to support the maintenance of the Museum building, collections, and garden.
Thanks to the terms of Robbins Hunter, Jr.’s will, together with the efforts of the founding governors of the Museum, a trust fund was developed that offsets what are our highest costs: staff salaries. This fund supports our staff through a percentage of the income earned by it. Therefore, no contributed dollars or earned revenue has been used to pay salaries for our employees. The Museum receives approximately 5% of the income from the investment of the trust and the rest is reinvested under the terms of the agreement. We, the board, cannot change or alter that agreement in any way because it was established under the terms of Robbins Hunter, Jr.’s will.
The trust fund, however, does not fund maintenance of the historic Avery-Downer House, nor does it support collections, programming or operations. For these purposes we rely on contributions, memberships, and earned revenue from our programming.
We are enormously grateful for those of you who do contribute, either in time or money or both. Every dollar given counts towards the continued operations of the Museum and ensures that the legacy continues for future generations to enjoy.
Even though programming does provide revenue, no programs we offer are funded by the operating budget of the Museum. By board vote, all programs must be self-funded, so organizers understand they need to plan and project the program’s needs and account for those costs and revenue. This requires our committees to do a bit of business planning and fund-raising on their own to make sure the program enhances our mission. For example, the Phoenix Rising round table discussions are entirely self-funded and any surplus left over at the end of this year (and the program’s end) will revert to the operating budget. The Jill Griesse gardens are also funded independently of our operating budget, so no operating funds, unless allocated by a donor for the gardens, are expended in that area. We feel this is the most responsible and transparent way to handle donated funds.