Get involved · Support us
Support the Ropewalk
It cost $149,200 to run the museum last year. About a sixth of that came from donations, most of them under $100.
01
Donate
Give once
Any amount helps. Donations go to wherever the need is greatest that year, unless you tell us otherwise.
Give monthly
A regular gift lets us plan: we know what’s coming in before the roof decides to need something.
In person: Donation box by the front desk, or ask to give by card at the desk.
02
What your gift does
$25 buys 50 acid-free sleeves for glass plates. That’s 50 of Ada Venn’s negatives rehoused, safe from the sleeves they’ve been in since the 1960s.
$100 lets 12 students from a school that can’t pay the fee do the Rope and River programme, rope to take home included.
$500 pays for a conservator’s condition report on one large textile, like the 1919 signature quilt, so we know how to store and show it without harm.
03
Leave a gift in your will
Our first large gift came in a will. Ada Venn left us her camera and 3,100 glass plates in 1965, four years after the society was founded, and they are now the heart of the archive.
A gift in your will can be money, a share of what’s left after family is provided for, or objects. If you’re thinking about it, please talk to whoever is helping with your will; we can’t give legal or financial advice. You don’t need to tell us, but if you do, we’ll thank you properly and can talk about how you’d like it used.
To leave a gift, your adviser will need our full name: Tarrow & District Historical Society, registered charity no. 1043 217.
04
Businesses and sponsors
Local businesses sponsor one thing at a time: an exhibition, the school bus fund, or the tea room’s new urn. Sponsors are named on the thing they paid for and in the annual report. We don’t put logos in the galleries.
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Where the money went last year
Total spent in 2025: $149,200
Coordinator’s wage (3 days a week)
$46,000
Building, insurance and repairs
$38,500
Set aside for the roof
$16,300
Collections care and storage
$14,200
Power, water and phone
$12,400
Exhibitions
$11,800
Printing, website and admin
$6,100
Schools and events
$3,900
Total
$149,200
Where it came from:
Admissions
$38,400
Grants
$31,000
Donations and gifts in wills
$24,600
Venue hire
$21,300
Membership
$17,900
Shop desk and tea room
$9,800
School and group visits
$6,200
Total
$149,200
Volunteers also gave 6,800 hours, which doesn’t appear in either table.