AMHERST — The Emily Dickinson Museum, in the midst of a major fundraising campaign to expand its resources and reach, has received a major new donation to help realize that goal: $2.5 million.

Jane and Robert Keiter of Lakeville, Connecticut, have made the contribution specifically to endow the museum’s directorship, creating the first endowed position at the historic home of the famous poet.

It’s the largest single gift the museum has ever received from an individual donor or couple during their lifetime, says Nora Maroulis, the museum’s director of development and communications.

The Keiters’ gift, made as an investment, will generate annual spendable income, Maroulis notes, that will help defray costs and directly support the position and work of the executive director each year — an important step toward making the museum fiscally secure over the long haul.

“Knowing that we now have a steady source of support for such a key position allows us to focus our fundraising attention on other areas of our annual operating budget,” Maroulis said in an email.

That budget, currently $1.6 million, “is slated to increase in the coming years as we expand programming and staff to better serve our core mission and global audience,” she added.

According to the museum, the Keiters were introduced to the facility through Amherst College, Robert’s alma mater — he’s class of 1957 — which also owns the Dickinson Museum.

In addition, one of Robert Keiter’s Amherst classmates, the late William Vickery, was a founding member of the museum’s Board of Governors, and he encouraged Keiter to serve on that board as well. (The estate of Vickery, who died in 2019, dedicated $22 million to the museum.)

“The Emily Dickinson Museum is a national treasure for which we all have a shared responsibility,” Robert Keiter said in a statement, adding that he and his wife have enjoyed watching the Amherst center expand its services and mission over the years. “We are honored to support its bright future.”

The Keiters made their gift to what’s known as the “Twice as Bold” campaign, named after one of Dickinson’s poems, which includes the lines “I took my Power in my Hand – / And went against the World – / ‘Twas not so much as David – had – / But I – was twice as bold.”

The “Twice as Bold” campaign is designed to make the museum campus fully accessible, renovate all buildings, and create additional educational resources (including online programs), among a number of goals.

The campaign is also designed to create long-term sustainability for the museum; the current goal is to raise $8 million by 2026 for additional programming and capital projects.

Some of that work has already been completed. The museum reopened last August after it was closed to in-person visits for two years to make extensive renovations to the original Dickinson homestead (the pandemic also factored into the closure).

Jane Wald, the museum’s executive director — her full title is now “Robert Keiter Family Executive Director” — thanked the Keiters for their gift, saying the couple have been strong supporters of new initiatives at the museum.

“We are thrilled to be able to honor their ongoing commitment in such a permanent and public way,” Wald said in a statement, referring to the endowment of the director’s position.

The Keiters’ “generosity and understanding of the importance of such gifts for the growth and future sustainability of the Museum is tremendous in and of itself and as an example to others,” Wald added.

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