Private donations are instrumental in keeping the museum open to the public and keeping admission free. Your gifts help fund all aspects of our operations including conservation and preservation, exhibitions, student employment, and more. All gifts are 100% tax deductible.
Donation
Online: We accept online donations via the University Center for Advancement's easy to use portal here.
In-person: Cash donations can be left in the donation box near the front door of the museum. These are anonymous and will not be recognized in our donor list or for tax purposes, but support our mission just the same.
Donations support every aspect of our operations. In a typical year, approximately 15-20% of the Pentacrest Museums operating budget comes from gifts or from the return on our endowment.
Currently, most private gifts to the Old Capitol Museum and Pentacrest Museums go to wages for our student docents, tour guides, and education assistants, production or rental of temporary exhibitions, maintenance of the building and collections, and staff salaries. In general, student support is our single greatest area of need.
If you have artifacts or objects you are thinking of donating to the museum's collections, please contact our collections department to discuss the idea. There are strict rules governing our acceptance of some materials, and some items are covered by state, federal, and international law. We can also help make sure your donated objects go to the part of the university best able to care for them and use them.
If you represent a local business interested in making an in-kind donation in return for sponsorship credit for events or programming, please contact us at pentacrest@uiowa.edu to discuss how we can work together.
