DENVER — An anonymous donor contributed $25 million to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and its supporting organization, the DMNS Foundation, which marks the largest gift in the institution’s 121-year history.
Ten percent of the donation will go to the museum to help with staffing, equipment and launch activities, the museum said. The remaining 90% will help establish an endowed fund at the DMNS Foundation. Annual distributions from this will support the museum's conservation work.
George Sparks, the museum's president and CEO, said they are all amazed by the donor's generosity.
“The support will vastly expand the museum’s capacity for collections conservation," Sparks said.
Museum Director of Anthropology and Senior Curator of Archaeology Stephen E. Nash said the gift will take the museum's work to another level.
"It will position the museum as a leader in culturally-inclusive object conservation in the Rocky Mountain region, nationally and internationally," Nash said.
The museum said its science division collects and cares for a natural history collection made of 4.3 million artifacts and specimens, including scientifically and culturally significant objects in archaeology, ethnology, geology, paleontology, health sciences, zoology and archives.
Scholars, source communities, artists, students and other groups use these collections in various ways.
For more information about the museum’s science division, visit DMNS.org/science.