submitted by Hallie Anderson
The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) recently announced that it received a $50,000 grant from the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Winter Park, Florida, to fund a comprehensive upgrade of its core systems. The investment will modernize the behind-the-scenes technology that helps OMA welcome every visitor, improving day-to-day efficiency and deepening community engagement.
The grant will help OMA replace three aging platforms central to its daily work: customer relationship management software, its point-of-sale system, and financial management tools. By trading disconnected applications for a single integrated platform, the museum can unify visitor, member, and donor data while streamlining transactions across admissions and retail.
“This generous grant from the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation is an investment in the work that keeps OMA running and growing for its visitors,” said Cathryn Mattson, executive director and CEO of OMA. “Modernizing our technology infrastructure will help us better serve our guests, deepen relationships with our members and donors, and manage our resources. We are deeply grateful to the Foundation for recognizing that strong internal systems lay the foundation for a strong cultural institution.”
OMA will begin selecting its new software system this summer, with the goal of implementing the integrated platform before the end of the year. The upgrade reflects the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation’s longstanding commitment to helping nonprofit organizations manage, govern and lead. The Foundation builds the infrastructure that handles administrative and organizational work, so an organization’s people can keep their focus where it belongs: on the community they serve.
“Great cultural institutions are inspired by passion, but they run on the systems working in the background,” said David A.Odahowski, president & CEO of the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation. “By investing in those systems, we can help the Orlando Museum of Art’s team spend less time on operations and more time on the people they exist to serve. That’s exactly the kind of lasting capacity we love to support.”
The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation’s support adds to a broader wave of investment in OMA’s foundations. The museum is completing critical building upgrades, including exterior renovations and the replacement of its roof and HVAC systems, with construction already underway.
Where those projects strengthen the physical spaces that house OMA’s collections and welcome its visitors, the new technology systems will strengthen the operational backbone that supports the museum’s people. This investment in infrastructure – both physical and technological – is helping the museum sustain and build on its work of connecting guests to compelling art that sparks curiosity and expands horizons.
For more information about OMA’s exhibitions and programs, please visit www.omart.org.
About the Orlando Museum of Art: Founded in 1924, the Orlando Museum of Art is a leading cultural institution in the Southeast, dedicated to stimulating creativity and intellectual curiosity by connecting people from all backgrounds and experiences with compelling art and new ideas.
About the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation: Established in 1973, the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation is a private grantmaking organization serving Central Florida and the nonprofit community. Foundation creates innovative civic solutions that help people help themselves. The Foundation dedicates significant resources to supporting nonprofit leadership in managing their organizations.
