Jill,

Right down the road from you is a fabricator who built some donation 
boxes for me when I was serving as Director of a museum in your area. He 
did a great job fabricating them from clear acrylic. The firm is Select 
Plastics in Norwalk, CT. The owner is Tony D'Andrea - I'd speak directly 
with him as he is very friendly to museums. The boxes I designed were 
mounted on pedestals so they looked similar to the other pedestals and 
vitrines in the museum. Access was through the pedestal base and a 
simple removable door in the bottom of the donation box. Doing it this 
way eliminated any chance of someone trying to pry the box open from the 
outside. I think the clear box is an inticement for people to donate and 
I like that the guests see the cash - I used to 'seed' the boxes with 
some petty cash so they were never empty. As far as preventing "fishing" 
I tried some designs with sloped baffles, etc. but they resulted in the 
donations getting jammed up, at least in our small acrylic versions of 
the boxes. The best way to prevent fishing is keep the slot thin - just 
big enough for a quarter to slip through and just wide enough for the 
narrow dimension of a bill.

In one case in another museum where we had a problem with security of 
the boxes we made the acrylic box a dummy and ran a money chute all the 
way through the box and into the pedestal so the actual donation ended 
up inside the base, not in the cube at all. We did put a sloped baffle 
in the base where it wasn't visible. The cash in the acrylic cube was 
put in when the cube was attached to the pedestal and was there only to 
attract donations. By the way, put a couple of faux checks in there as 
well - surprising how many checks we'd get!

Larry Fisher
Museum Planner and Experience Design Consultant
Bristol, RI
(401)253-5335
[log in to unmask]

On 11/8/2010 11:16 AM, Deupi, Jill wrote:
> As we are looking for precisely the same sort of thing for our new museum, I would appreciate if respondents could post directly to the list.
>
> My thanks, Jill
>
> Jill Deupi, J.D., Ph.D., FAAR '04
> Director, Bellarmine Museum
> Assistant Professor of Art History
> Dept. of Visual and Performing Arts
> Fairfield University
> 1073 N. Benson Road
> Fairfield, CT 06824-5195
> (203)254-4000, x2215
>
> www.fairfield.edu/museum
>
> Find us on Facebook!
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list on behalf of Monta Lee Dakin
> Sent: Fri 11/5/2010 2:35 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] donation boxes:  need construction and security details
>
> I am looking for information regarding the design and specifications  for
> the construction of secure donation boxes. Specially hoping to get
> information that includes details on recommended fabrication materials and  methods,
> including any security features such as dual locks and baffles on the  bill
> slots to
> prevent funds from being "fished" out the top.  I am  interested in other
> features, too, if you have them.
>
> One of my members  wants this  information to help his site improve the
> quality and  security of its donation boxes.
>
> If your information is lengthy or  involves an attachment, send directly to
> this address ([log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) ) or send
> a link.
>
> Thanks for your help!!!!
>
> Monta Lee
>
> Monta Lee Dakin
> Executive Director
>
> MPMA: A Ten-state museum network
> Colorado, Kansas, Montana,  Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
> South Dakota, Texas and  Wyoming
>
>
> Mark your calendar:
> 2011 MPMA Conference: October  17-21, 2011 Helena, Montana
> 2012 MPMA Conference:  October  1-5, 2012 Corpus Christi, Texas
>
>
> Mountain-Plains Museums  Association
> 7110 West David Drive
> Littleton, Colorado  80128-5404
> 303-979-9358 www.mpma.net
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).