Donate
Help us SPARK Learning
There are several ways you can contribute to SPARK. By making a donation, you can provide funding for educational and creative programming, hands-on exhibits that promote learning through play, social and emotional engagement, and an incredible visitor experience for all children and their adults.
Monthly Giving
Legacy Giving
Donor Advised Giving
IRA Gift (QCD)
Monthly Giving
Give Every Month (GEM) to SPARK. Your contribution will support arts & cultural programming, literacy, STEAM, and health & wellbeing activities. SPARK offers more than 500 programs each year to all of our visitors.
These programs provide enrichment and help facilitate discovery, curiosity, and critical thinking. We play messy. We help create masterpieces. And best of all, this is done between a young child and an important adult in their life. Be a GEM and help us continue to SPARK imaginations.
Legacy Giving
A charitable gift from your estate is a favored method of giving that enables you to achieve your financial goals, maintain control of your assets, and benefit SPARK.
The simplest way to leave a legacy gift is to include specific language in your will naming SPARK, the Children’s Museum of Rochester, Inc. as the recipient of a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate or the residual assets after other bequests are satisfied.
Donor Advised Giving
A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is a philanthropic vehicle established at a public charity. It allows donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax benefit, and then recommend grants from the fund over time.
An easy way to think about a donor-advised fund is like a charitable checking or savings account: a donor contributes to the fund as frequently as they like and then recommends grants to their favorite charity when they are ready.
How does a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) work?
IRA Gift (QCD)
QCD, IRA, RMD – what do they mean and why should you care? The short answer is that these acronyms are terms that could benefit YOU and SPARK!
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you have been philanthropic in some nature. And if you’re over 70 ½ or know someone who is, you will want to know how to utilize your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to make charitable donations that are both tax-advantageous and increase your philanthropy giving strategy!
People who hold Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) are required to take the required minimum distribution (RMDs) each year beginning at age 73—even if they don’t need or want the funds. That same required minimum distribution increases the IRA holder’s total taxable income. Yikes! Here is how Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) can be tax-advantageous and help SPARK.
For more information, contact Darcy Elmer, Finance Chair with SPARK’s Board of Directors, and Senior Fiduciary Officer at Associated Bank Private Wealth, today at (507) 424-3438 or Darcy.Elmer@AssociatedBank.com.
Other Ways to Support SPARK
Shop
Support the Museum by shopping our registry where you’ll find some of our most needed items for putting on programs and keeping things running.
Volunteer
Become a volunteer and donate your time to the Museum! Click here for more info or contact Megan at mlong@sparkrochestermn.org
Sponsor
Support SPARK through sponsorship opportunities, including programming, hands-on exhibits, and annual events. Check out our sponsor opportunities here.