Donate
Foster Lifelong Learning
The Virginia Discovery Museum has been a vital community resource for families in the Charlottesville-Albemarle region for more than 40 years, and since 1981, our nonprofit Museum has relied on the generosity of friends and neighbors, businesses, and foundations to foster lifelong learning among children of all backgrounds. VDM is committed to accessibility and inclusivity, and 25 percent of the Museum’s 70,000 annual visitors are admitted free of charge, including 8,000 underserved community members through our Sponsored Admission Program alone. Your financial support ensures that our youngest community members have a vibrant, diverse, clean, and safe space filled with educational and playful opportunities for discovery, cognitive development, and social interaction, regardless of a family’s ability to pay admission.
Donate Now | How Does My Gift Help? | Ways to Give | Annual Report | Donors
How Does My Gift Help?
Sponsored Admission Program
The Museum’s Sponsored Admission Program accounts for 8,000 visitors annually, or 11 percent of VDM’s total admissions each year. This program allows underserved children and families to utilize VDM’s exhibit space free of charge on sponsored daily admission visits and sponsored group field trips through their affiliations with 54 social service agencies.
Your Gift: Helps VDM keep the Sponsored Admission Program vibrant for qualifying visitors and partner organizations, expand its benefits to new organizations, and indirectly support the critical work of those local agencies.
Field Trips, Programs & Scholarships
VDM offers enrichment and learning opportunities through school and small group Field Trips and educational Programs, including free-with-admission Drop-Ins for all ages, after-school Discovery Workshops for ages 4 to 8, half-day Camps for ages 4 to 8, and multi-class Chess Mates chess series for ages 6 to 10.
Your Gift: Helps VDM stock craft supplies, STEM components, and other educational materials; continuously improve the quality of the Museum’s program offerings; introduce new programs; provide scholarships for fee-based classes and camps; and keep field trip costs low for local schools and community groups.
Exhibit Maintenance & Development
The Museum currently maintains 15 hands-on educational play areas over 6,000 square feet of exhibit space. Each exhibit is designed to engage children cognitively, physically, and socially, and our staff seeks to foster an environment in which children learn through exploratory and imaginative play and collaborative problem-solving.
Your Gift: Helps VDM keep exhibit components in working order, create new exhibit spaces, and ensure a safe and clean environment where children can enjoy exploratory and imaginative play.
Ways to Give
Thank you for supporting the Museum’s mission of fostering intellectual curiosity and development for all children in our community. VDM is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Online
Click the link and follow the prompts to make an online donation using a credit or debit card.
By Mail
Complete a donor card and mail to Virginia Discovery Museum, P.O. Box 1128, Charlottesville, VA 22902. Checks payable to “Virginia Discovery Museum.”
Contact Us
Can’t find the answer you’re looking for? Contact Director of Operations Lindsay Jones at (434) 977-1025 x102 or operationsdirector@vadm.org to learn more about how you can support the Virginia Discovery Museum.