GRAND FORKS – An anonymous donor has promised $2 million in matching funds to help boost a fundraising effort for the Grand Forks Children’s Museum.
The donor and museum boosters now are encouraging others to donate to the project, which is expected to break ground in the spring.
“This is a moment for bold investment in our region’s future,” Katie Mayer, executive director of the museum, said in a statement sent to the media. “This matching challenge is a call to visionary philanthropists, those who believe in cultivating curiosity, sparking innovation, and building a legacy of learning that stretches from agriculture to aerospace, energy to education. It’s an invitation to invest not just in a building, but in the boundless potential of our region’s children.”
It’s the museum’s largest private donation yet, Mayer said.
“Overwhelmed with joy,” was Mayer’s reaction upon learning of the donation.
She praised the support the community has shown to date, and how “this large of an amount is really pushing the project forward.”
“It gives us a light at the end of the tunnel to show us that we’re almost there,” Mayer told the Grand Forks Herald in a subsequent interview Friday morning.
Museum boosters have raised $27 million so far, with a goal of raising another $8 million before breaking ground in the spring. The hope is that the announcement of the anonymous $2 million donor sparks another round of donations.
“The matching challenge is designed to inspire leadership-level gifts and deepen regional investment in a children’s museum that will serve thousands of children and families across North Dakota and western Minnesota,” said a statement sent to the media.
Specifically, the anonymous $2 million donation means “every leadership gift of $250,000 or more will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling its impact and accelerating the museum’s path toward its $35 million campaign goal.”
While the dollars from the anonymous donor won’t match donations of less than $250,000, Mayer said potential donors can band together and form groups to achieve that level.
In past Herald reporting, museum boosters have said that if ground is broken in spring 2026, the expected completion date will be sometime in mid-2027. The museum will be built on a plot of land near the under-construction Altru Sports Complex, a public exercise facility that will include artificial turf, walking tracks and pickleball and basketball courts.
Originally, the museum was expected to be built on the south side of Grand Forks, near Choice Health. But the new location will make the museum more visible to guests and will complete a growing quality-of-life corridor along 42nd Street that includes existing amenities like the Alerus Center and the Hugo’s BMX Raceway, along with the under-construction Altru Sports Complex.
The museum will be a nonprofit, charitable organization with a goal of “sparking imagination and lifelong learning through hands-on STEAM experiences,” according to museum literature. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
“This is a moment for bold investment in our region’s future,” Mayer said in the release sent to the media. “This matching challenge is a call to visionary philanthropists, those who believe in cultivating curiosity, sparking innovation, and building a legacy of learning that stretches from agriculture to aerospace, energy to education. It’s an invitation to invest not just in a building, but in the boundless potential of our region’s children.”
