The Montclair Art Museum is fortunate to have an endowment that supports unrestricted general operating needs as well as restricted funds for support of its art collection, art acquisitions, publications, education programs, library, Yard School of Art, buildings and grounds.

Through the generosity of many friends and benefactors, and with superb financial management, the Museum has carefully built its endowment over the years. Still, the Museum’s endowment today is just a fraction of those of its peer institutions across the nation. A healthy endowment is the best promise of long life for many of the exhibitions and programs that distinguish the Montclair Art Museum.

Click here for a selected listing of endowment funds.

For donors, the benefits of donating to the Montclair Art Museum’s endowment are compelling -- an opportunity to provide a permanent legacy benefiting the institution far into the future. These gifts create an opportunity to share in the Museum’s future success by targeting one’s donation to fill a specific need, benefit a particular program, or provide a base of general operating support through an unrestricted gift. An endowment gift carries with it the knowledge that one can continue to give far into the future.

Named endowment funds in amounts of $25,000 and greater are established by private donors to honor or memorialize individuals of special importance. Such these funds continue to grow by individual contributions that increase the support for the services they provide. These funds benefit the Museum in perpetuity.

You can participate in building and strengthening the Museum’s endowment by making an outright gift, pledge, bequest or other planned gift. Planned gifts can be tailored to meet your family’s financial needs; in addition, you will enjoy a significant tax deduction while reducing or eliminating capital gains and/or estate tax liability.

Make a gift now to support one of our most popular endowment funds:

Annual Fund
Learn more about the gift that keeps on giving!

Friends of Conservation
Contributions to this fund are used to insure that we meet the highest standards for art conservation and that the treasures from our permanent collection of art will be maintained for future generations.

Friends of Native American Art
Donations to this fund help to make the Museum’s Native American collection one of the best in the region by providing support for new purchases of Native American art. This popular collection serves as a valuable educational resource for the children of New Jersey and could not continue to grow without the generous donations of supporters like you.

Nat Harris Fund
Established in 2003, this scholarship fund enables artistically talented, minority, and economically challenged children to enroll in the Museum’s Yard School of Art.

To learn more about establishing a new endowment fund, or making a gift in honor or in memory of an individual of special importance, please contact Aran Roche, Deputy Director for Development at (973) 746-5555, ext. 220.

Endowing MAM’s Future

Give a Gift that Keeps on Giving

Annual Fund gifts serve as the foundation of the Montclair Art Museum’s institutional and fiscal health. We celebrate the Museum’s 95th anniversary in 2009, and we count on your continued support in the years ahead to strengthen our position as a center for art and inspiration in our region. One way to invest in the Museum’s bright future is to designate an estate gift for our Annual Giving Endowment Fund.

Here’s how:

It’s as easy as one, two, three: 1) Add up your annual gifts to MAM for the year and multiply by 20. 2) Make an estate gift for this amount through your will or other device. 3) The endowment will provide an annual gift to the Museum at roughly the same dollar value you are giving now.

Long after you are gone-even 100 years from now-MAM will continue to receive your annual gift. How is this possible? Our managers invest the principal of the endowment, always being careful to make enough income to meet the payout requirement of the fund. Since the principal is kept intact, the endowment never dries out. Your giving to the Museum goes on, and on.

Here’s an example: Each year Emily gives $500 to MAM’s Annual Fund. She may make a few smaller donations during the year or write a check for one annual gift. She realizes that MAM depends on her giving and wonders how we will fare when she is no longer around to send the $500. Emily talks to Aran Roche, our Deputy Director for Development, and learns about our “Endow Your Giving” program. Emily then instructs her attorney to modify her will, providing a $10,000 bequest to our Annual Giving Endowment Fund. The initial income from her endowment gift will be $500 (assuming at least a 5% return), and income will even grow as the endowment appreciates over time.
Emily is pleased because she knows money from the endowment fund will be given to the Annual Fund every year—just as if she, herself, were sending a check to the Montclair Art Museum.

The idea of an endowment fund may captivate you to the point you’ll want to establish a larger fund—bearing your name or the name of a loved one—for either a restricted or unrestricted purpose close to your heart. This can be done now, or through an estate gift. We urge you to talk with Aran Roche, who can explain this in detail and help you accomplish your goals. Call her at (973) 746-5555 ext. 220 or email aroche@montclairartmuseum.org. She looks forward to hearing from you.