A Night of Wine Tasting

A night of friends, fun and wine!

Southwest High School string quartet provided beautiful music all night

Last night the IVDM Society Board held their annual Wine Tasting event- and a great time was had by all!  125 museum members, guests, and wine lovers from across the county joined us at the El Centro Community Center for a night of wine, music, conversation, and high stakes bidding on a range of silent auction items. All wines were from Fernando Gaxiola and Baja Wine Food.  Beautiful chamber music was provided by members of Southwest High School's talented orchestra.Interim Director David Breeckner said "It was great seeing old friends tonight, but also really exciting to see so many new faces!"  More than half the people in attendance were at their first IVDM event.

Silent Auction- bidding war!

Over $13,000 was raised this year and all proceeds from the Wine Tasting go to the museum's Endowment Fund. When fully funded, the Endowment will support two permanent staff positions at the museum: a Head Curator and a Cultural Collections and Programs Manager.  These positions are vital to retain the necessary expertise for collections management and preservation on staff.  Every successful museum program stems from the preservation and accessibility of our local collections. Best of all, through 2019 all donations towards the Endowment are being matched by a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities!  The goal of this five year grant has been to raise $1 million for the Endowment Fund and before last night, we were less than $300,000 to our goal.  Through July, the NEH grant will match donations dollar for dollar, so everyone's contributions are doubled! If you are interested in donating towards this grant, please click here.

Edgar rocked the hair and the wine pouring all night!

2014-2015 Endowment Goal Almost Reached!

-from the Director

For several years now we've slowly been building an Endowment Fund here at the Museum.  Our goal is to be able to pay staff salaries out of the Endowment, so that we are not dependent on grants to fund our necessary positions.

Last year we won a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge grant to help us in our quest to build the Museum's Endowment Fund to over $1 million dollars.  Through this grant, over the next 5 years the NEH would match 3 to1 any funds we raised.  We've held 10 FriendRaisers in the last fiscal year and raised our goal amount of $10,000.

Through donations and hard work we have raised over $173,000 of the $195,000 needed by July 31, 2015 to make the Challenge Grant's goal and continue with the NEH program.

As of last week we were $21,000 off that number.  One generous Museum Member, on hearing this, donated $5,000 last week. Another member has pledged an additional $500.  As of today we are less than $17,000 off our target number!

As our members and supporters we are hoping that you will help us reach that $17,000 by the end of July.  Please consider donating, through our website or by mail, to the IVDM Endowment Fund.  Your generous donation will be matched 3:1 by the National Endowment of the Humanities. Our staff thanks you in advance for your help!

Checks can be written to:

Imperial Valley Desert Museum Society

P.O. Box 2455

El Centro, CA 92243

Please let us know if you have any questions, feel free to email us or call (760) 358-7016