John -- 

While the deduction would be tax deductible either
way, the County that operates your museum might have
some rules about donations that will limit the ability
to spend the funds as the museum would want.

Cash-strapped county governments often look to the
museums and other cultural/heritage facilities they
operate as operations that can generate a certain
amount of revenue to offset their dependence on the
tax levy. Unless specified donations cam wind up as
entries on the revenue side of the balance sheet not
as funds the museum can spend.  

I recall one sizable bequest to the museum I worked
for years ago that wound up being used to pay for
upgrades to the security system.  Museum staff had
been compiling lists of priorities that this
unrestricted gift could have been used to fund. 
Administrators had been anticipating the security
upgrades would be funded through the normal capital
improvements budget. Alas, that was not to be the case
and the bequest bought cameras, monitors, consoles,
etc. for an office in the museum's garage.  

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI 
  

-- John Gavin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Our museum is a county museum. We also have a
> separate, private 501 c 3
> whose mission is to build an endowment for the
> museum. We also use the
> foundation to run donations through so donors can
> take their tax deductions.
> My question is whether the donors can contribute
> directly to a government
> museum and take a tax deduction so I don't always
> have to run it through the
> foundation?

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