The State Employees' Credit Union announced last week that its foundation is giving $4 million to the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, a CapDev client, funding the museum's centerpiece of its planned Nature Research Center, the SECU Daily Planet, a three-story, state-of-the-art multimedia program area.

The grant is the largest ever by the SECU Foundation and brings the museum's campaign total now to half of the $44 million in private funds needed to fund the Nature Research Center. The NRC is a $54 million public-private project that will be an 80,000sf extension of the museum, for which the state contributed $10 million.

"State Employees' Credit Union is one of our strongest and longest standing partners in this venture, and we are of course delighted with their generosity, as this is the largest private gift we've received since the NRC capital campaign was launched in Fall 2008," said Director of N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, Dr. Betsy Bennett.