Been reading with interest the thread on donation boxes.  We have
one in our museum located at the entrance to our hangar on our
information desk, and have found (for some odd reason that
replicates itself) that $8.00 (three one dollar bills and one five
dollar bill) as "seed" money garners better results than any other
combination or amount.

But we have had a scam pulled on us a couple of times with the
donation box as the centerpiece.  The way it's worked is that an
adult and a child come into the museum together.  While the adult
is over looking at a display, the child drops a donation into the
box.  (None of our docents ever pays attention to the amount
dropped into the box, and I don't exepct them to.)  Later, the
adult comes to the desk and says that the child dropped their last
$20 into the box and they need the money to get home, etc.  We had
no choice when this happened, we felt, other than to unlock the box
and give the individual $20.  Now, however, when we see a $20 bill
in the box, we remove it right away.  Has made for a couple of
humorous incidents when an adult was certain the child had dropped
their last $20 into the box and we dig though it and find no $20
bill.  Interestingly, we've never had an incident where someone
says it's his last $10 or $5.

SF Gray
Executive Director
390th Memorial Museum Foundation
6000 E. Valencia Road
Tucson, AZ 85706
520/574-0287
fax 520/574-3030