BALTIMORE CHILDRENS MUSEUM INC
Play With A Purpose
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
A recent Washington Post article mentions that most experts believe that about 85% of Baltimore children are growing up in "low-income families"—that means a family of four living on less than $45,000 a year and who would qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. In a recent report on early childhood learning, The American Academy of Pediatrics declared that play is the best type of learning for young children. They continued that when children grow up in low-income households, they don't have enough access to play, mainly because their family’s central focus is on survival. As the advocate for play in our community, Port Discovery believes we have a role in breaking down the barriers to play that families experience and ultimately better-preparing children for school and a bright future.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Discovery Days, Discover ME Days, Be a Part of the Art Days, and Family Exploration Days
Inclusive programs for families and schools with children of differing abilities
Family, Military, & School Access
Free and reduced admission for families, students, teachers, and chaperones
Port Discovery After School
Onsite and offsite programs that engage students from Title I schools in art and STEM programming
Museum on the Road
Offsite programs that take art, music, and STEM enrichment programming into schools and the community
Museum on the Move
Interactive experiences for children and families visiting Port Discovery’s signature exhibits showcased at host sites in the community
Where we work
Awards
Sensory Inclusive Venue 2022
Kulture City
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total number of free admissions
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Family, Military, & School Access
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Port Discovery's 2021 total reflects a decrease due to the Museum COVID related closures. The museum is now currently open and on track to increase the number of free admission to pre-covid numbers.
Number of students and early learners benefitting from our programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children, Infants and toddlers
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Port Discovery's 2019 total reflects a decrease due to the Museum being closed January-June for exhibit renovation. Port Discovery's 2020 total reflects a further decrease due to the pandemic.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
As the premier children's museum in the mid-Atlantic, Port Discovery Children's Museum educates young learners and inspires their lifelong curiosity. Our play-to-learn philosophy opens the door for children to discover and explore the world around them and to lead smarter, healthier, more engaged lives. We seek to foster success in school and life for an ever-growing number of children by providing them with a safe, smart place to engage in child-driven, playful learning, and by taking our programs into our community and neighboring communities, as well as throughout the state. Because we believe in the power of play to transform the lives of children, we envision a world where the value of learning through play is recognized and respected, and where every child has access to transformative play-to-learn opportunities.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
PLAYFUL LEARNING
The Museum's programs and exhibits are organized into four key Learning Initiatives that support Maryland's formal educational curricula while nurturing lifelong learning and creating a vibrant, child-focused cultural destination:
• Early Childhood, providing children ages five and under with exhibits and programming devoted to accommodating each learner's age, ability, and size;
• Healthy Families/Healthy Communities, teaching children and families the fundamental components of a healthy and balanced life;
• Creative Arts and Culture, a gateway for children into a wider world of creativity that celebrates diversity and self-expression through the vehicle of art;
• STEM Learning, providing opportunities to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (including a special emphasis on Financial Literacy).
EMPHASIS ON EARLY LEARNERS
Port Discovery's exhibits and programs for early learners and their caregivers are based on principles drawn from the rich body of research on how a child develops in the early years from birth to age five – critical years for brain growth, muscle development, and cognitive and social advancement. We provide experiences that support infants and toddlers in these critical early stages and help parents develop and nurture their children's intellectual, physical, and emotional growth and well-being – all of which are key to school-readiness.
PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
The Museum's robust series of creative educational and recreational programs for children with special needs includes both exclusive and inclusive events. Our visitors can interact and explore at their own pace in a less crowded environment and benefit freely from all educational resources, including information provided by partners serving the special needs community. All programs in the series provide a variety of play-to-learn experiences through which children of all abilities have the opportunity to develop skills needed for healthy, happy, and productive lives.
ONSITE, OFFSITE, AND OUTREACH STUDENT ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS
Port Discovery's Museum on the Road series extends our reach to students throughout our community and educators seeking creative educational enrichment programming to complement classroom instruction through arts, STEM, early literacy, and fitness activities. Programs are offered as either a series or single immersion session to fit the varying needs of schools, early learning centers, libraries, and other youth service sites. As an extension of Port Discovery's School Access Program, Title I schools and organizations serving Title I school students are offered customized program and fee structures to accommodate budget limitations. In tandem with the Museum on the Road series, Port Discovery's After School programming continues to serve Title I school students at their after school program sites.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Staff, our greatest internal resource, is leveraged for their diverse expertise in informal education and across the Museum's key learning initiatives. Staff are assigned and promoted in accordance with their specific strengths. We maximize the Museum's impact by ensuring continuous professional development through ongoing training in all departments, leveraging external resources like field-related conferences/workshops, examples set by other regions' leading children's museums, and field-related research that helps shape content and delivery for maximum benefit to those we serve.
We also leverage partnerships to maximize our strengths in serving the community. Select partners include: Maryland State Department of Education, Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore County Public Schools, Child First Authority, Head Start, Judy Centers, Kennedy Krieger Institute, University of Maryland, Towson University, and Johns Hopkins University.
Port Discovery's Board members are assets to the Museum beyond their commitments of time and treasure and willingness to participate in the fundraising process. They are selected for their capacity for conscientious participation in governance responsibilities; qualifications for evaluating and supporting the Museum's President & CEO; and their diversity in expertise, representing K-12 and higher education, early childhood development, health, family services, finance, business, marketing, tourism, law, professional sports, science, and more.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency, a key objective for Port Discovery has been to respond to calls-to-action from the (Kirwan) Commission on Innovation & Excellence in Education and other stakeholders to deepen our service to high-need students and early learners across Maryland. Even before the health emergency closed schools, many Maryland students were grossly under-resourced, and Port Discovery was working to help close gaps.
Starting in spring of 2020, Port Discovery staff adapted much of its play-based, educational enrichment programming to both virtual and mixed-use formats to mitigate summer learning loss and school-readiness gaps exacerbated by school and summer camp closures. As soon as these virtual programs got off the ground, our teams began looking ahead to devising safe and physically distant in-person ways to help vulnerable students and families separated from their schools and other support networks.
In May, Port Discovery began distributing backpacks filled with at-home educational enrichment materials to students and early learners at over 40 weekend meal pickup sites across greater Baltimore. Each of these PlayPacks contains four essential, developmentally supportive play items designed to help keep vulnerable children from falling even further behind their peers.
During the school year, Port Discovery’s Museum on the Road and After School traveling outreach programs typically reach children in their classrooms and at libraries, early learning centers, and other community organizations serving young learners. This school year, these programs are being delivered in virtual formats, supplemented with Virtual Learning Support Packs that support students’ mental health as they navigate the challenges of virtual learning.
Port Discovery remains committed through the COVID-19 health emergency to opening its doors to children living in challenging circumstances, veterans and military families, and children with special needs through Access initiatives. Since mid-October, Port Discovery has been safely welcoming visitors back to the Museum on weekends, with adaptations, limited capacity, and new safety protocols in place. We have launched a $2 Community Day that will continue throughout the pandemic. In November, Port Discovery hosted 25 military families from Maryland and Virginia to enjoy a free day of play.
In addition, children participating in Port Discovery’s Next Generation Youth Advisory Council have served an essential role this year in speaking to the stress and anxiety that young people are dealing with, offering meaningful input on Museum programs and activities. Port Discovery will continue to adapt to our rapidly evolving landscape as we serve students and classrooms throughout Maryland to meet all educational and student service objectives through school year 2020-2021!
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
BALTIMORE CHILDRENS MUSEUM INC
Board of directorsas of 05/27/2022
Dennis Rasmussen
The Rasmussen Group
Mark Pollak
Ballard Spahr, LLP
Gordon Stetz
Douglas Becker
Cintana Education
William Corey
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Daniel Fulmer
M&T Bank
Robert Gabrys
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Clarke Langrall
Forecast Strategic Advisors
M. Gay G. Legg
Monica Brandes
Bank of America
Carim Khouzami
Baltimore Gas & Electric Company
Kathleen Hardway
Venable, LLP
Charlie Hatter
Prime Building Advantage & Sotheby's International Realty
Matthew D. Klaiber
Miles & Stockbridge P.C.
Jennifer Litchman
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Teresa Payne-Nunn
Executive Leadership Council
Barbara Tachovsky
Anthony V. Imbraguglio
McCormick & Company
Chad Lane
Allegis Global Solutions
William Palmer
Flavor & Fragrance Specialties, Inc.
Christopher S. Ripley
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Stephen Canaras
Ernst & Young
Dana Henson
The Henson Development Company
Brooke Lierman
Maryland State House of Delegates
Angela Celestin
CareFirst
Brice Phillips
Phillips Foods, Inc.
Thomas S. Pilkerton
DLA Piper
Morry Zolet
The Zolet Lenet and Fink Group at Morgan Stanley
Holly Carnevale
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Randy Guttman
JMI Equity
Jeffrey Graham
Pandora Jewelry
Sal Dhanani
T. Rowe Price
Dominique Kelly
BioMarin Pharmaceutical
Daniel Russell
HeimLantz CPAs and Advisors
Shantell Roberts
Touching Young Lives
Melanie Perreault
Towson University
Board leadership practices
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes