DuPage Children’s Museum awarded $900k grant by former longtime board member’s foundation

The DuPage Children’s Museum has been awarded a $900,000, three-year grant that will help the Naperville institution bolster its guest experience, supporting anything from new exhibits to special events, museum officials say.

“This kind of grant will really have an impact on all of the guests that we see (come through) the building each year, which is around three hundred thousand,” said Stephanie Carper, the museum’s executive vice president for institutional advancement.

Funding was awarded by the Ronald L. McDaniel Foundation, a nonprofit organization that bears the name of longtime DuPage Children’s Museum board member Ron McDaniel, who died in 2022.

McDaniel was best known as the owner and president of Chicago-based Western-Cullen-Hayes Inc., a leading supplier of railroad appliances. He served on the DuPage Children’s Museum Board of Directors from 2010 until his death in June 2022. He established his namesake foundation in 1995.

The organization’s mission is to fund direct service programs that give children a helping hand, whether that be through educational, housing, medical or basic needs support, according to its website. It has previously funded such Naperville nonprofits as Loaves & Fishes Community Services and Turning Point Autism Foundation and a host of others across the state.

Through his tenure as a board member, McDaniel was “a very generous supporter of the museum,” Carper said. They’re “just honored that the foundation would continue that legacy of supporting us with a grant like this.”

Grant funding will go towards “all aspects of guest experience,” Carper said. That means anything that happens inside the museum could benefit from the award, she said.

For instance, it could help fund exhibit maintenance, the creation of new exhibits, replacement of toys for young visitors and even hiring staff. The museum could also help bolster its access membership program, which offers memberships at a reduced rate to qualifying families, Carper said.

All-purpose funding like this is advantageous because it allows museum leadership to decide where the support is needed most, she said.

Any sort of philanthropy, though, is a significant boon to the museum. Aside from earned revenue accrued through general admission, memberships and rentals, about 40% of the museum’s annual operating budget comes from philanthropic support, Carper said.

“A lot of what we are able to do at the museum is funded by philanthropy,” she said. “And the experiences that we can offer to our guests wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t also receive philanthropic support.”

tkenny@chicagotribune.com

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