The Children’s Museum of Richmond’s (CMoR) mission is to inspire growth in all children by engaging families in learning through play. We serve children (ages 0 to 8 years) and their families throughout Central Virginia. Our two museum locations offer interactive programs and services that promote early learning, development, literacy, and healthy living. CMoR works diligently to ensure equitable access to diverse and culturally relevant educational resources and programs. Print and direct mail is an essential component in providing these services and programs to children and families, and for reaching potential donors.

CMoR welcomed over 200,000 visitors in 2022. Throughout the museum, printed exhibit guides are available to these visitors. At each exhibit, these guides suggest activities and discussions to help families make deeper connections between play and learning. CMoR’s Family Engagement programming also provides printed parent tip sheets throughout the museum that assist parents in continuing the learning when they return home. Parent tip sheets cover topics such as helping children deal with stress, playtime activities for babies and preschoolers, kindergarten registration, literacy development, and much more. These printed materials are also distributed to schools, daycares, and other community locations, and are available in English and Spanish. Our Family Engagement programming also includes weekly bilingual story times, special craft days, and art studio time which all require printed handouts and/or worksheets.

CMoR is proud to offer field trip programs for children (including children with disabilities) in grades Pre-K through 3rd grade at a free or reduced rate for Title I schools. During these field trips schools and students are provided printed handouts or worksheets focusing on literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies, with an emphasis on learning through play.

Additionally, our staff use printed materials on a daily basis, in the planning and organization of major museum programming, such as the Access for All program and CMoR’s Book Bank. The Access for All program works with schools and nonprofit organizations to provide admission, membership, and program tuition for children, families, and school groups who could not otherwise visit the museum. The Children's Museum Book Bank is dedicated to enriching the lives of children in need by providing them with as many high quality books as possible. The Book Bank helps to ensure that all children have quality books in their home, have the pride of book ownership, and have opportunities to read and be read to.

Direct mail is an important tool we use at CMoR to keep our members and community involved and updated on museum operations, events, and outcomes. We use direct mail to send our printed year end appeal which invites our broader community to support and donate to our mission. We also print and mail impact reports which provide an overview of our yearly accomplishments as well as goals for the upcoming year. These mailings help us to communicate to our donors the impact they are having on children’s education, and how we have improved access for all families and lower-income communities.

In 2023, we plan to provide even more programming and events for our community. We would like to continue the programs mentioned above, and we have two new large events planned that will require even more print and direct mail services. In April, we will hold a completely free event for families called I See Me Play in RVA. This community event will offer tons of opportunities for families to create, grow, build, and read together in interactive ways that embody a culture of belonging. Many printed handouts and activities will be needed for this event, which is expected to be attended by more than 1,000 children. In May, we will hold our newest fundraising event, Mirrors & Windows: A Grown-Up Evening of Play. This gala will also require printed materials and direct mailed invitations.

CMoR’s printed materials equip parents and caregivers with the skills needed to support school success and learning from home. They provide valuable information on our exhibits, promote and help facilitate events, and serve as a communication tool to connect us with our visitors and donors. A grant from Conquest Graphics would assist the Children’s Museum of Richmond in fulfilling our mission and to aid us in continuing to foster a community that recognizes and appreciates that children grow and learn through play