A NUMBER OF WAYS TO INVEST IN ASM
2026-27 Fundraising Priorities
Your support is crucial to our success. We depend on the generosity of members and friends for the essential support needed to care for collections, create new knowledge, and share resources with the world in many and varied ways. Perhaps one of our current fundraising priorities will inspire you to invest in us even more.
Priority #1: Storage Modernization for ASM’s Southwestern Textiles Collection
$200,000 in cash donations are sought for storage modernization and space expansion for ASM’s significant and highly prized Southwestern Textiles collection. The vision is a secure, spacious, dynamic environment that will make the collection more immediately and more safely accessible to students, scholars, artists, members of descendant communities, and the general public. Donate now.
Priority #2: The Clara Lee Tanner Endowed Professorship
This fund ensures a faculty position shared by the Arizona State Museum and the UA School of Anthropology (SoA). Headquartered at ASM with a research lab, the incumbent curator teaches through SoA, using ASM’s collections, and conducts research and publishes on the material culture of the Indigenous peoples of the U.S. Southwest and northwest Mexico. To date, the principal stands at about $1.6M in cash and pledges. The goal is $3M. Annual payouts cover salary and, if possible, some operational expenses. Both will be increasing in the coming years. In order to keep pace, this fund needs significant support. Donate now.
Priority #3: Endowment Fund for the Computerized Collections Information System (CCIS)
Curators and database managers have been working for years to migrate the content that will be available worldwide via an interactive website—information on some three million items. It costs about $20,000 a year for user licenses, web hosting fees, security, maintenance, and to continually add data. Contributions to the CCIS endowment fund will endure forever in the principal and help us maintain this important public service in perpetuity. Donate now.
Priority #4: Off-campus Archaeological Curation and Research Facility
A high priority is an off-campus curation and research facility in Tucson. ASM is out of space. Nothing more can be done in its two existing buildings. University of Arizona administration is exploring options. Once built or established, about $1M will be needed to outfit the space with computers, processing equipment, and office furniture.
Priority #5: Additional Endowment Funds
An investment in any one of ASM's endowment funds will endure forever and help strengthen ASM's financial foundation well into the future:
- Advancement Endowment Fund (Donate now)
- Conservation Laboratory Endowment Fund (Donate now)
- Ethnological Collections Endowment Fund
- Exhibits Endowment Fund (Donate now)
- Library and Archives Endowment Fund
- Research Endowment Fund (Donate now)
- Stanley J. Olsen Laboratory of Zooarchaeology Endowment Fund
Priority Area #6: Planned Gifts
There are a number of ways to plan a significant gift and enjoy tax benefits at the same time:
- Stocks
- Life Insurance
- Charitable Gift Annuities
- Will or Trust
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For more information or to send your check, payable to "UA Foundation/ASM," contact:
Darlene F. Lizarraga
Office of Marketing and Development
Arizona State Museum
PO Box 210026
Tucson, AZ 85721-0026
dfl@arizona.edu or 520-626-8381