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Double the Donation, Double the Difference
Staff and volunteers at a Memory Café session
Staff and volunteers at a Memory Café session
Sheffield's museums belong to you and they rely on your support. Make a donation today and your gift will double, making twice the difference. You'll help connect people with their history, the world around them and each other for generations to come.
The connections that we help people make are at the heart of what we do. Across the museums and the wider city, we work with the communities we serve and the visitors we welcome to tell stories that recognise the human experiences that are common to us all. Together, we explore new ideas, chart journeys of discovery that spark imaginations, and help people understand where they’ve come from and the world we live in today.
A donation from you today will have twice the impact on that work – our lead Double the Donation, Double the Difference campaign supporters, Graham and Sue Royle have generously agreed to match all donations we receive up to a total contribution of £150,000. That's twice the impact – at no extra cost to you.
As we near the end of the Double the Donation, Double the Difference campaign, we’ve already raised an incredible £145,000 – which in turn, thanks to the generosity of Graham and Sue, has been doubled up to £290,000.
With your support, we’re so close to reaching our target of £300,000 by the end of the year and we’re calling on you to help us get there. By making a donation today you’ll help provide inspiring, life-shaping experiences for everyone we welcome and work with. Thank you.
BSL interpreted talks at the Graves Gallery. Photo © Andy Brown
BSL interpreted talks at the Graves Gallery. Photo © Andy Brown
Volunteers making connections across the museums
“It enables me to do things with other people and use my life skills to help others. I feel like I'm giving back to the community”
“It gets me out of the house and speaking to people. It builds my confidence and helps me feel useful.”
Volunteers play a hugely important role in our work. In generously giving their time, they support projects and activity right across the museums and are part of everything that we do. Many of those who volunteer are able to develop new skills and grow their experience – for others, making such a valued contribution to our work as charity helps them find an important sense of purpose, belonging and connection.
"I'm a retired English teacher and I feel like I'd lost myself since I stopped work and wasn't sure who I was anymore. Volunteering on the school workshops and at home on the handling object research has reminded me who I am and made me find myself again."
Our amazing volunteers also help others find meaningful connections in so many ways. That might be through helping children discover something new through supporting a schools workshop; by sharing objects and helping participants make connections to them in our memory café sessions; or by helping us research Sheffield’s collections and learn more about them.
Our volunteering programme makes a huge difference to so many people’s lives and it’s only possible thanks to your support.
Please donate today and help people make connections that really matter.
Volunteers Jenny and Grace at an Anglo Saxon schools workshop
How your gift will make a difference:
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£5: Could help us deliver a memory café session for people living with dementia or memory issues, their carers and friends.
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£10: Could support talks, tours and events that help people find powerful connections with displays and the stories they tell
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£25: Could support exhibitions that help people see the world around them in new and different ways
And every gift you make will be matched pound for pound by Graham and Sue – doubling the positive impact it has in the lives of the people we serve.
Thanks to your generosity, people can make life-shaping connections inspired by the collections you help us care for.
‘The museums are brought to life by the collections they are home to and the stories they tell. It’s through those objects and stories, that everyone we welcome has an opportunity to learn about each other, and themselves, where they’ve come from and what their future might be.
‘The connections that people find in those stories can be profound – be it something they come to recognise about their own lives or something they’ve come to understand about a person whose life has been different to their own.
‘We’re proud to be entrusted as custodians of the city’s collections, and the very many remarkable connected stories. Weston Park Museum’s Painted Fabrics display is just one powerful example, chronicling how injured servicemen found place and purpose as makers and craftspeople after suffering life-changing injuries during the First World War.
‘The stories of the people that came to Britain to help rebuild the country after the Second World War, and whose contributions are celebrated in the Caribbean Footsteps exhibition, are another. And the experiences of the workers that powered the industry that gave the Steel City its name, shared in the displays at Kelham Island Museum, are yet another.
‘These are just a handful of examples, but across the museums and the collections we care for there are hundreds of thousands more – stories that connect us to our history, remind us of our heritage and help us learn about ourselves and each other.
‘We can only care for these collections, celebrate these stories and help people make meaningful connections through them with your help – please donate today.'
Sian Brown, Head of Collections, Sheffield Museums
How to donate:
Donate online or onsite and your donation will be matched pound for pound – doubling the positive impact it has in the lives of the people we serve.
Donate Today
To make a donation by telephone, call our Administration Officer, Fundraising & Board, Heather Gibb on 0114 278 2610.
To donate by post, please send cheques made payable to ‘Sheffield Museums’ to:
Double the Donation, Double the Difference
Sheffield Museums
Leader House
Surrey Street
Sheffield
S1 2LH
To find out more about our Double the Donation, Double the Difference campaign and to discuss other ways to get involved, please contact Kim Streets, Chief Executive kim.streets@sheffieldmuseums.org.uk
