Although the new National Health Museum is planned for Atlanta, organizers are looking for only one-fourth to one-third of the $250 million cost to be raised in Georgia, said Dr. Louis Sullivan, the museum's chairman.

"The majority of the funding will come from around the country, from major national corporations and foundations," said Sullivan, a former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services and president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine.

So far, Coca-Cola has agreed to donate $1 million, which could be used to help fund a capital drive. Gov. Sonny Perdue hasn't committed state funds but has urged others to give.

Perdue held a meeting May 30 at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation headquarters to ask local companies and foundations to contribute to the museum, according to Sullivan and Kim Shreckengost, executive vice president and chief of staff at the Blank Foundation. Blank Foundation officials weren't at the meeting and haven't received a formal request for money, Shreckengost said.

Sullivan acknowledged this might not be the ideal time to raise funds, considering the national economic slowdown and Atlanta's city budget shortfall. But he said that by setting the tentative opening date of the museum at the end of 2012, "we're trying to give ourselves enough time to raise the money."

One question is whether the fund-raising for the new museum will take away from the campaign to build the proposed civil rights museum on vacant land near Centennial Olympic Park.

A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, said he didn't believe it would.

"It's two totally different projects," Robinson said. "One is about what is unique about Atlanta and its history. The other is a national attraction. I think the timing is that we are on track with the Center for Civil and Human Rights. The health museum is not going to impede our ability to raise money."

Contributors listed on the health museum's Web site include the American Medical Association, based in Chicago, and health insurance and drug companies and national foundations, none from Georgia.

The national fund-raising is likely to be helped by the museum's prominent board members from around the country. Besides Sullivan, a Georgia native and Atlanta resident, there's Chairman Emeritus Dr. C. Everett Koop, a former U.S. surgeon general; Joseph Califano Jr., a former U.S. secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; and Tommy Thompson, a former Wisconsin governor and former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services.

The museum's impact is expected to be statewide and national, in part because it will offer traveling exhibits to educate the public about heart disease, diabetes and other health issues, Sullivan said.

"We're looking to come up with a better word than 'museum' because museums tend to be more backward-looking. This will be very current," he said. "It's more of a health information resource."

— Staff writer Maria Saporta contributed to this story.