Arts, Culture & HeritageManitoba Heritage Trust Program helps support Manitoba’s museums and archives
Initiated by the Province of Manitoba, the Manitoba Heritage Trust Program (MHTP) is helping support more than 200 museums and heritage institutions across our province by helping them create endowment funds that provide annual revenue.
By assisting in sustainability, MHTP allows places like the Prairie View Elevator Museum—which exists in a retired grain elevator in Plum Coulee, Man.—to continue giving Manitobans that treasured look into our past.
“This elevator is extremely important to our community,” says Heather Unger, Plum Coulee Community Foundation board member. “We were one of the first museums to sign up for the program.”
The prairies aren’t only rich with serene landscapes and friendly people, but also with history.
To help keep that rich history alive, The Winnipeg Foundation is administrating MHTP, with support from the Association of Manitoba Museums, the Association for Manitoba Archives and several community foundations across the province.
Plum Coulee is one of the many towns and communities in Manitoba that benefits—or will benefit—from the historical preservation work of MHTP. The program helps museums and archives all over the province with various costs.
“I proposed joining the Heritage Trust Program to the museum committee. We already have a fund in place to maintain the structure of the elevator. It only made sense that we develop a fund for the inner-operations of the elevator,” Unger says.
In addition to the Prairie View Elevator Museum, approximately 50 organizations are working with the program.
Every $2 given to an organization’s MHTP endowment is stretched by $1 — so a $2 gift becomes a $3 gift. Along with distributing the stretch funding, The Foundation provides organizations with administrative support, like producing tax receipts and promotional resources to help them fundraise during the three-year program.
Learn more: endowMB.org
MHTP FUNDS
The following MHTP Funds were opened between June 1 and Sept. 30, 2019.
- Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library Fund
- Keystone Pioneer Museum Fund
- Ogniwo Polish Museum Society Fund
- Oak Lake & District Museum Fund
- Marine Museum of Manitoba (Selkirk) Fund
- Minnedosa Regional Archives Fund
- Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum Fund
- Winnipeg River Heritage Museum Fund
- Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre Fund
- Musee de St Pierre Jolys Fund
- Woodlands Pioneer Museum Fund
This story is featured in the Fall 2019 issue of our Working Together magazine. Download or view the full issue on our Publications page.