Development Director Abi Karlin-Resnick began Nov. 1 and applications are due by Jan. 2 for the new executive director, reports Board of Trustees President Linda Lanier.

The museum was on the brink of closure this summer when the former board of directors began making plans to turn the 55-year-old educational facility over to another nonprofit.

The board claimed it couldn’t afford to keep the facility open because it wasn’t making enough money.

A group led by Lanier and Linda Liebes raised more than $543,000 in 30 days to save the museum. It began collecting money and creating a plan to save the museum when it learned of the potential closure in August. With the help of the donations, the museum has a balanced budget this year, Lanier said.

The new 22-member board aims to increase fundraising to strengthen the museum’s endowment and long-term financial stability. It promises to maintain a balanced annual budget, establish new governance procedures and implement a process for major changes to the environmental hall.

It will create a new program and exhibit committee to implement upgrades to aging exhibits.

And the fundraising continues.

The museum recently sent out its annual appeal letter — each with a personal letter from a board member, Lanier said.

Since the summer’s battle to save the museum, mothers groups throughout the Peninsula are taking a greater interest in the facility.

“A group of young mothers has banded together to raise money for the museum and attract new families to the museum,” Lanier said in an e-mail to the Daily Journal.

The group of mothers is holding a gingerbread open house on Dec. 11. The group hopes to raise at least $10,000 for the museum, Lanier said.

The whirlwind fundraising campaign and plan to save Coyote Point Museum was sparked by news that another nonprofit, the 11th Hour Project, was considering a takeover of the troubled museum. The 11th Hour Project, run by a group of Silicon Valley executives, wanted to turn the museum into a large-scale global warming education center. The 11th Hour Project withdrew its informal proposal at the end of August — a week before the Save Coyote Point Museum campaign announced how much money it raised.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.