Dallas’ Museum of Nature & Science tied with Toledo’s YMCA & JCC for the first-ever Collaboration Prize. The two groups split a $250,ooo award — having been selected from a national pool of 644 candidates. Established by the Lodestar Foundation in Phoenix and the Arizono-Indiana-Michigan Alliance, the prize is intended to recognize non-profits who have “reinvented” or renewed themselves by collaborative efforts — and, it is hoped, will provide models for future efforts.

In the case of the Dallas museum, the prize is for the 2006 merger of the Dallas Museum of Natural History, the Science Place and the Dallas Children’s Museum.