Article Via TheRecord.com
Money will be used to to prepare for fundraising campaign
KITCHENER — A $50,000 donation from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada will help THEMUSEUM prepare for a fundraising campaign to buy, demolish and replace a bank building next door as part of a major expansion.
“It is really great,” David Marskell, chief executive officer at THEMUSEUM, said of the support from Toyota. “We are really, really delighted. This helps us out a lot.”
Toyota’s employees are key to the automaker’s success, and the donation is all about helping make a great place for them to live and raise families, says the company.
“Good people are critical for a strong company, and so is a vibrant community,” Ray Boorsma, Toyota’s general manager of information systems and purchasing, said Tuesday in a statement.
“THEMUSEUM’s innovative approach, drawing together creative arts, technology, and cultural communities, is a perfect fit with Toyota’s beliefs, and an obvious social investment for us,” said Boorsma.
Last month, THEMUSEUM announced a $1 million donation from BMO Bank of Montreal. The bank is also giving THEMUSEUM the first opportunity to buy the bank building at 2 King St. W. for $3 million. THEMUSEUM needs to raise $1 million to close that deal.
“That is just a small piece of what we are ultimately going to have to raise,” said Marskell.
A capital campaign will be launched to pay for a new wing of THEMUSEUM to be built where the bank now stands at King and Queen streets. Hiring consultants to plan the fundraising campaign, and paying architects to design and cost the new wing, along with other precampaign expenses could easily cost $150,000, Marskell said.
“So we are really, really pleased with Toyota and how they stepped up,” said Marskell. “It sets the stage for us to build something incredible.”
THEMUSEUM has retained the fundraising consultant Ketchum, which most recently worked with the Stratford Festival, helping it secure more than $70 million in pledges for a new theatre.