Colchester Museums Development Foundation

23/05/2025

We are so pleased to announce a donation of £100,000 to support inclusive career opportunities across the museums. A huge thank you to Greyfriars Hotel Colchester for their generous support, and to Market Field College for their continued and valued partnership.

The money will be used over two years to create new roles and initiatives at Colchester Castle, Hollytrees Museum, and the Natural History Museum.

31/07/2023

This week we're celebrating two years of Colchester Museums Development Foundation. Like any good birthday, we want to celebrate with presents! 🎁This week only, purchase any Guardian Membership for yourself and we'll send you a free Individual Guardian Membership to gift to a loved one.

Offer ends at 11:59pm on 6th August 2023. Terms and conditions apply, see the sign-up form for more details.

FAQs & More Info ➡️ https://loom.ly/NSgLh6k
Sign up ➡️ https://loom.ly/VKdkDkI

This week we're celebrating two years of our charitable foundation Colchester Museums Development Foundation. Like any good birthday, we want to celebrate with presents! 🎁This week only, purchase any Guardian Membership for yourself and we'll send you a free Individual Guardian Membership to gift to a loved one.

Offer ends at 11:59pm on 6th August 2023. Terms and conditions apply, see the sign-up form for more details.

FAQs & More Info ➡️ https://loom.ly/NSgLh6k
Sign up ➡️ https://loom.ly/VKdkDkI

02/07/2023

Today is UK ! Over the past two years, 15 million people have taken part in this chance to say thank you for everyone and everything that makes our communities great places to live in. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the wonderful visitors, members, donors and funders who have helped make everything we do possible this year so far! 🥰 Here's to YOU!

Arts Council England, Colchester City Council, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund, Garfield Weston Foundation, Colchester Museums Development Foundation, , The Leche Trust , Colchester Catalyst Charity, , Localgiving, Post Code Lottery, , MHA Macintyre Hudson.

22/11/2022

We’re back for another year of ! New objects will be live on Tuesday 29th November as part of our campaign.

Funds raised by Adopt an Object go to CMDF, where they help us to fund collections care and research, access, inclusion, and community collaboration across Colchester Museums.

International day of giving is just one week away!

The good news is that this year we will be launching our second Adopt an Object campaign, with 21 new and fascinating objects up for 'adoption'. The bad news? You have just one week left to adopt this Roman p***s pot before we switch to the new objects!

An object adoption is the perfect unusual gift for the history-enthusiast in your life, and to sweeten the deal, your donation will help us to protect millions of years of local and global history through care of our collections.

Have a final browse of last year's objects here: https://colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/adoptanobject/

03/11/2022

Today we want to say a HUGE thank you to the Co-op Local Community Fund. For the last year we have been a Colchester area Local Cause, and during this time Co-op members have donated a whopping £1,200 to CMDF!

As a newer charity, support like this makes a huge difference to our ability to inspire and enrich our local community, through the preservation, exploration, and sharing of our town’s heritage.

Thank you to all who chose CMDF as their Local Cause!

Learn more about CMDF and how you can get involved here: https://colchester.cimuseums.org.uk/cmdf/

Co-op East of England Co-op

03/08/2022

Today marks one whole year since our launch!

We are so proud of everything the Foundation has achieved in its first year in support of Colchester Museums. We have launched new Guardian Membership and Adopt an Object schemes supporting collections care and so much more across Colchester Castle, Hollytrees Museum and the Natural History Museum. We have secured valuable funding to enhance access for d/Deaf visitors to Colchester Castle, support new craft activities at Natural History Museum and schools work at Hollytrees Museum, and raised funds for new exhibitions and critical repairs to our wonderful and historically important buildings.

Thank you to everyone who has supported to far!

To learn more about CMDF and how you can get involved, visit

Find out how you can support the work of Colchester Museums and help share our town’s incredible heritage!