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)
01

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. 

02

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.

Our Legal Name: The Children’s Museum of Rochester, Inc. 
Our Federal Tax ID: 84-2749957
SPARK, the Children’s Museum of Rochester, Inc. is a MN Non-Profit Corporation 501(c)3. 
Our Address: 1201 12th Street SW, Suite 632, Rochester, MN 55902
03

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?

You make an irrevocable contribution of personal assets.
You immediately receive the maximum tax deduction that the IRS allows.
You name your donor-advised fund account, advisors, and any successors or charitable beneficiaries.
Your contribution is placed into a donor-advised fund account where it can be invested and grow tax free.
At any time afterward, you can recommend grants from your account to qualified charities based on your donor intent and philanthropic objectives.
04

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

01

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.

02

Volunteer

Become a volunteer and donate your time to the Museum! Click here for more info or contact Makeila at mnyman@sparkrochestermn.org

03

Sponsor

Support SPARK through sponsorship opportunities, including programming, hands-on exhibits, and annual events. Check out our sponsor opportunities here.

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