Months of planning culminated in an evening of giving Feb. 5, resulting in the Plainsman Museum raising more than $22,000 during its annual fundraising event.
“We had an awesome evening,” reported Tina Larson, the museum’s executive director. “Leading up to it, when you think about the annual fundraiser, it’s 85 percent run by volunteers. They start in October planning it, and then everyone just pitches in as the time gets closer that committee participation just grows and grows.”
Larson thanked the community for supporting an event she said was very successful.
“The community at large responded ahead of time,” she said. “Our numbers were down because of rescheduling of sporting events and people wanting to travel during the good weather that January did not provide for anybody, however having the numbers down did not impact us significantly as those who really wanted to participate did by donation.”
Larson said fundraising is an important process for nonprofit organizations like the Plainsman, adding that the community has supported the museum well over the years.
“I think that’s why a lot of us provide different times like Go Big Give in different times during the year for people to give because there’s certain times of the year that it’s easier to give than others,” she said. “So yeah, we’re just fortunate that in February we can raise that kind of money.”
The funds raised last week are earmarked for the museum’s general fund, part of the board and staff’s strategy to find ways to create sustainable giving.
“If we’re going to build a budget and live by a budget we need to know how much we’re going to have, so we’re trying to find ways to do that,” she said. “We’ve been fortunate to have over $1.5 million in eight years in grants to do what we’ve needed to do, but sustained giving that keeps the lights on and keeps a staff and keeps us supplied with the things we need to do to care for all the artifacts people have given us.”
