A $1 million match is trying to keep a Kansas natural history museum open after state cuts

The Bob and Pat Schmidt Foundation will match gifts up to $1 million to Save Sternberg, a campaign to keep the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, open, the university's foundation announced on October 13. Two weeks earlier, the university said it would close the museum on December 18, citing cuts in state funding.

How the match works

The match is one to one. It covers gifts from individuals and companies that are designated to Save Sternberg through the Fort Hays State University (FHSU) Foundation, said Gary Shorman, the Schmidt Foundation's president. Gifts from other foundations are encouraged but do not count toward the match. Gifts already made to the campaign do count, and the FHSU Foundation said more than $237,000 came in during the campaign's first few weeks.

FHSU President Tisa Mason has directed the FHSU Foundation to secure $1 million in private gifts by December 31, the announcement said. If the match is fully used, that $1 million would become $2 million.

Why the museum needs it

Mason announced the closure on September 28, KMUW reported. She said the university faces a $2.4 million cut in state funding. According to the university, the museum spends about $1.3 million a year and brings in about $470,000 from visitors, memberships, grants and sales, and closing it would save about $850,000. Mason also said the museum's building has about $20 million in deferred maintenance.

On October 6, Mason told the Ellis County Commission that new partnerships and community donations could keep the museum open past December, KMUW reported. She said the university was "optimistic about reaching our $1 million goal of additional support from the community for fiscal year '27." The match announcement does not say whether the December 18 closure is now off. The museum holds more than three million specimens documenting the life and environments of the Great Plains, according to the university.

"This gift is intended to bridge short-term funding needs while a sustainable, long-term operating plan is developed for the Sternberg Museum," Shorman said. Jason Williby, president and CEO of the FHSU Foundation, said: "We are humbled by the outpouring of generosity from those who believe in the Sternberg Museum and are stepping forward to help secure its future." Bob and Pat Schmidt, for whom the foundation is named, shared nearly 69 years of marriage and a deep love for FHSU, the announcement said; its trustees, Shorman, Joe Jeter and Randy Walker, are continuing that support.

What other campaigns can learn

In our view, the design is worth noting: the match counts only gifts from individuals and companies, which pushes the campaign to build a broad donor base rather than wait for one more foundation check. Counting gifts already made also rewards early donors instead of leaving them out. Other recent matches were built differently: UNO tied a $1 million challenge to a goal of 7,000 gifts, and Lilly Endowment's offer to Boone County's community foundation pays $2 for every $1 given to its endowment.

The match covers a short-term gap, not the yearly one. Mason said the museum's annual subsidy averaged about $835,000 over the past decade, so $2 million would cover a little more than two years at that rate, by our arithmetic. The Schmidt Foundation itself calls its gift a bridge, and donors can reasonably ask what the long-term operating plan will be. Mason said in October that a faculty and staff group is developing a plan to run the museum into next year.