Help us preserve the Czech Settler's Heritage

and help keep the Czech Emigration Museum open

give a tax-deductible donation to Czech Friends

Below is a more extensive explanation what your money will do to help preserve the heritage of the Czech immigrants in America and in their old home country.

However, if you are already sure that you want to help with an on-line donation, please check out the options and click one of the donation button below. Donors giving more than $ 25 automatically subscribe to our Czech Friends magazine. Clicking one of the buttons will bring you to the secure site of PAYPAL, which handles the on-line payments for us. Include your address and email as shipping address so we can send you confirmation of your tax-deductible donation.

To help fund the development and running of new extensions to the Kojakovice Peasant and Emigration Museums (a small-gauge railroad, peat museum, new emigration travel exhibition, better visitor facilities ), donors can also symbolically "buy" a decorative share certificate in those exhibitions.

Beware: you do NOT need a PAYPAL account and you do NOT need to establish one if you do not want to do so; the payment site accepts both PAYPAL and normal credit-card payments without further obligations to PAYPAL.


		subscription for 1 year our Czech Friends magazine (2 issues, recurring unless cancelled).

		One year Czech Friends magazine plus a "name certificate" (your name or the name of your Czech ancestor) to hang on the wall

		One year Czech Friends magazine, name certificate, 2 hours of genealogical research (1 hour if your ancestors are Czech but originating from outside South Bohemia).

		Two-year subscription to Czech Friends, B-share certificate, a half-day guided tour through the Society's two museums, and 4 hours research (2 if outside South Bohemia).

		Three-year subscription to Czech Friends, A-share certificate, a full day guided tour through the Society's two museums and the region, and 6 hours research (4 when outside South Bohemia)

		For those who want to give a different amount than mentioned above (below $ 25 is also possible, all donations are welcome!).

If, for whatever reason, you do not want to donate online but through a check or by giving goods, please contact our staff through our donation contact form.

All donations are tax-deductible. However, conform the IRS rules, a fair value for the benefits has to be excluded from the total donated amount.

Why should we give any support to the Czech Rozmberk Society

Most people are prepared to give something to non-profits helping Americans and preserving American heritage. But why should you help a foreign non-profit working in South Bohemia, Czech Republic?

We can give several arguments why you should help us support the Czech Rozmberk Society. In the end, it all boils down to two things:

You think that their heritage preservation and regional development activities are something worth supporting
You realize that without help from foreign donations, a Czech non-profit cannot survive despite a healthy track record in project funding; European project funding simply does not pay for all costs.

Another one? It is also about investigating and preserving a not very well known part of American history. The background and stories of those who emigrated, why they left their home country to travel to America and help settle the new US states, is part of our history as well.

What they need

The Rozmberk Society has a very impressive track record in obtaining project funding; no funds are needed for running specific projects or activities. Unfortunately, European Union and Czech grants need pre-financing and grants hardly ever cover all costs. In addition, daily operating cost (office rent, staff, developing project proposals, etc) are not paid for at all.

Basically, the Society needs funds to pay for essential activities outside projects and for running the Peasant and Emigration Museum in Kojakovice and the historic Blacksmith workshop in Nove Hrady.

Both visitor's places are too small to ask high entrance fees; hiring an extra person to collect the possible fees does not pay off. However, with free entrance people often leave voluntary donations similar to a potential entrance fee and buy some goods in our shop. Although this income helps, it is not sufficient to pay for all operating costs either.

In general, running both places and the minimum office costs amount to about 15,000 USD yearly, including payments for two persons throughout the year and an additional four during the summer season. With those costs covered the Society can also continue with preparing and running community and regional development projects helping to create new jobs and opportunities in the region. It also guarantees ongoing research on and preservation of the regional emigration history.

Help from us is needed to continue these activities. Even 15 years after the fall of the communism, the Czech society and the Czech people are still busy repairing the material and emotional damage done by close to 50 years of oppression (seven years under Nazi occupation and over 50 years under communism). Although people start to realize that non-profits are an important part of the restoration efforts, State and people do not yet have sufficient extra funds to substantially support non-profits. Corporate sponsorship is also low, and aimed at high-publicity events.

Your money also goes a long way. For example, the costs for employing one person for one month in the Czech Republic is 500 USD, including all taxes, social and health insurances (only 260 USD reaches the employee after taxes).

Finally, donating to the Friends of the Rozmberk Society instead of direct help has the advantage that your money is handled through a secure and reliable US charity, your donations are tax-deductible, and we can control that the money is really spent as should be.

If you want to know more about the activities of the Czech Rozmberk Society, please visit their English website or the site for the Ecomuseum Ruze with visors information about the Rozmberk museums and the region. Or you can go back to the donation options

Friends of the Rozmberk Society Inc is an Iowa-based non-profit 501 (c) (3) corporation;
donations to the corporation are tax-deductible ( EIN/tax ID number: 30-0202715).

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Text and coding updates Robert Dulfer (2008)