Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Museum foundation goes national
Seeks broader fundraising base
The Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is changing to give it more national reach.
The charitable foundation that supports the Winnipeg-based national museum will get a new chief executive officer and an expanded board of directors that will include more representation from outside Manitoba. "It's important that people know that this is really just a metamorphosis of the Friends," museum CEO Stuart Murray said. "It's not about breaking any relationships. It's about enhancing something that has functioned quite well."
The new CEO and expanded board will mean a change in role for the Asper family, which has been the driving force of the project for more than a decade.
Gail Asper, daughter of museum founder Israel Asper, and Moe Levy, executive director of the Asper Foundation, have been the point people for all private fundraising since the Friends foundation was created in 2002. The changes to be officially announced later this week mean the Aspers and Levy will no longer carry the burden as the primary private fundraisers, although they will continue to have a presence on the board of both the museum and the fundraising charity.
"I definitely see my role diminishing over time," Gail Asper said. "I will still be on the board of the museum... but I won't have to concern myself with heading a national fundraising campaign. Frankly, the thought of that is attractive. I'm looking forward to focusing again on other projects at the Asper Foundation, which were sort of put on the back burner while we worked on the museum."
Murray said that as the museum nears its opening in the spring of 2013, it was important to get more of a national flavour on the board of the Friends. Right now, all 12 members of the board are from Manitoba; in the future, the revamped board will include 12 directors from Manitoba, and another 12 from across Canada.
"We need to build on what we've done, and make this a truly national organization with a broader scope," he added.
The Friends foundation was created as a federally registered charity to raise money for what was at that time going to be a privately controlled museum in Winnipeg.
In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the federal government would designate the museum as a national institution, managed by a federally created Crown corporation.
The Friends foundation continued fundraising, with an original goal of $105 million. The Friends have exceeded that by more than $10 million.
Murray said the revamped Friends foundation will be an important contributor to programming at the museum. Although Ottawa has agreed to provide $22 million annually for basic operation costs, more money is needed to send school-age children from around the country to study at the museum.
The revamped Friends foundation will be expected to raise between $9 million and $12 million annually to support programming, Murray said.
The museum's educational program was at the heart of Izzy Asper's original vision. Prior to conceiving a plan to build a museum in Winnipeg, the Asper Foundation paid to send Manitoba students to Washington, D.C., to tour the National Holocaust Museum.
The new CEO and board will find themselves put to work immediately, as fundraising remains a top-of-mind concern for the $310-million museum. The project is still about $45 million short. Negotiations to cover that shortfall between the museum, the Friends foundation and the three levels of government continue, Murray added.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 7, 2010 B1
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