Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) Giving

https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/

For the 2024/2025 giving campaign, the Discovery Center at Water’s Edge’s CFC number is (and will remain) 11621.

The Discovery Center at Water’s Edge (DCWE) is an interactive and multi-dimensional facility providing exhibits and programs that enhance STEM educational programs in our public schools and the broader community. The facility includes interactive exhibits, hands-on technology, a laboratory, classrooms, an auditorium, Maker Space, and multi-purpose spaces where traveling exhibits from other science centers can be hosted. In addition to hosting thousands of visitors and tourists annually, we host after-school and summer science programming. Active and retired scientists, college students, and teachers offer tutoring and mentoring to students. The Discovery Center serves as a regional hub for STEM activity and an important building block in the tourism ecosystem in the Upper Chesapeake region.

Yes, Phase 1 of the Discovery Center opened in November 2023. This is a 5,000-SF “Preview” center – a steppingstone to our goal of a 35,000-SF regional science center that can accommodate up to 100,000 visitors each year. While we consider it a Preview Center, it is still serving hundreds of families each month with STEM experiences, after-school programs, and camps.

The Discovery Center is located at 4505 Pulaski Highway, Belcamp, MD. The building was once the retail store for the former Bata Shoe company. The Discovery Center is fortunate to be situated right on the Bush River, creating opportunities for environmental learning and discovery.

In 2011, Harford County lost its number one tourist attraction – the Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG). At its peak, the Ordnance Museum attracted over 100,000 visitors per year and was a major economic driver for the region. In 2014, a group of community leaders came together to consider options to replace the museum, but quickly realized that the upper Chesapeake community would be better served by an “off base,” locally-run, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-oriented facility that would appeal to a broad family-oriented audience. The community leaders had several reasons for the decision to focus on STEM:

• First, by providing Harford County’s students with increased exposure to science and technology early in their intellectual development, the Discovery Center will play a critical role in the learning ecosystem of the county. Studies show that informal science learning that complements curriculum presented in school settings demonstrably increases students’ participation AND performance in STEM-related subjects throughout their academic career. This is enormously important to Harford County’s economic competitiveness in attracting and retaining talented knowledge-based workers to support all commercial and industrial sectors in Harford County, not just the defense community.
• Second, a major regional science center in Harford County will draw tens of thousands of people from the entire Upper Chesapeake Region, creating a “halo effect” that benefits all tourist attractions in the region.
• Third, there is a scientific brain trust and concentration of resources already in the Upper Chesapeake Region that supports and complements the advanced technology missions carried out by organizations at APG. The Discovery Center at Water’s Edge will work with representatives of those organizations to leverage their existing STEM-oriented education initiatives to build a major regional science center for the benefit of the entire community, particularly our students who must be STEM literate to succeed in today’s marketplace.

Additionally, the Discovery Center at Water’s Edge will honor the heritage of STEM-related accomplishments of the employees of APG. The Discovery Center is committed to creating exhibits that illustrate examples of STEM achievements initiated during the past century that began as military and defense projects – but which evolved into the commercial products we use every day.

The CFC website reflects our old AFR that was prior to DCWE being open. Now that we are open, our AFR has gone down to 12%, which will be reflected in this year’s 990. The Discovery Center, like other nonprofits, had a higher AFR because the effort was on building an infrastructure for a sustainable organization. Now, operations and programming have begun, and the administrative burden is lessened.