9/11 Memorial and Museum Launches $75 Million Fundraising Drive as It Approaches 25th Anniversary

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum launched a $75 million fundraising campaign on Wednesday to support education programs and maintain free access for students, first responders and veterans. Mike Bloomberg pledged to match the next $25 million in donations through Bloomberg Philanthropies. Organizers have already secured the first $25 million through initial gifts.

Beth Hillman, the museum’s president and CEO, said the funds will help reach roughly 100 million Americans born after the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. She said the money will also ensure free admission continues, noting that standard adult tickets cost $36 and that the institution relies primarily on ticket sales for operations.

The memorial has recorded about 97 million visitors and the museum nearly 28 million attendees since both opened in 2014 at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan.

Hillman said the campaign aims to present the aftermath as a story of service and resilience. A new exhibit titled “In Their Honor” will highlight examples such as chef Bobby Flay preparing meals for first responders, theater workers supplying lights for the blacked-out area around ground zero, and victims’ families founding 9/11 Day to promote volunteering.

The organization runs summer teachers’ institutes, offers professional development programs for educators and produces a new 30-minute film each year using firsthand accounts.

Staff from the museum guest-edited the March/April issue of The National Council for the Social Studies’ magazine, which includes a timeline of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. ” Alex Edgar, a Gen Z civic leader working with the group Made By Us, said narratives about overcoming division can serve as an antidote to political polarization experienced by young people, but those stories must reach classrooms and museum visitors.