CRMA to Receive Iowa Cultural Trust Endowment Challenge Grant
Cedar Rapids, Iowa— The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (CRMA) is one of eleven cultural organizations in the state to receive an Iowa Cultural Trust Endowment Challenge Grant. This month, the Iowa Cultural Trust awarded the Museum a $28,000 Challenge Grant to assist in building the Museum’s endowment.
Endowment Challenge Grants – the newest and largest of the two Iowa Cultural Trust programs – are designed to help non-profit cultural, arts and history organizations increase their endowments for general operating support. Grant recipients are required to raise $3 in new endowment funds in direct response to the Challenge Grant for every dollar of grant funds awarded.
Terry Pitts, the CRMA’s Executive Director, says the Museum is ready for the challenge. “We have been quietly raising endowment funds with a goal of adding $3 million to our endowment in the next two years. I’m pleased to say that we are already more than halfway to our goal. This Challenge Grant comes at the right time for us to make a push to reach our goal by the end of 2012.”
Organizations receiving the Endowment Challenge Grant have two years to achieve the three-to-one cash match, after which they will receive funding from the Iowa Cultural Trust Grant. All matching pledges and gifts must be new during the challenge grant period, and must be received and deposited into the endowment fund during the two-year grant period. The interest from these new endowment and matching funds must be used to support general operating expenses.
The Iowa Legislature created the Iowa Cultural Trust in 2002. Legislation calls for up to $1 million to be appropriated to the Cultural Trust annually. Currently, the funding is appropriated via the Iowa Values Fund. Grants are distributed from interest earned on principal.
“Iowa’s non-profit cultural organizations are vital to the economic viability and livability of communities,” said Willard (Sandy) Boyd, chair of the Iowa Cultural Trust (ICT) board of directors. “These eleven Iowa Cultural Trust Endowment Challenge Grants will be the seed challenge money these organizations will need to raise private funds.”
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The mission of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is to excite, engage and educate our community and visitors through our collection, exhibitions and programs. The Museum’s collection contains more than 5,600 works of art by hundreds of artists, including the world's largest collection of works by Grant Wood. For more information on exhibitions or related programs call the Museum at 319.366.7503 or visit the Museum's web site at www.crma.org. Museum Hours: noon to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday; noon to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday; 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.