The Douglas County Historical Society is looking for more financial help, and its representatives soon will be fanning out across the area to ask for support.

The society, which runs the Watkins Community Museum of History, has already generated $50,000 in commitments and is preparing to launch the second phase of a campaign that started in June. A kick-off meeting for volunteers is scheduled Wednesday.

So far the campaign has focused on a few dozen businesses and individuals. Now campaign leaders are banking on even more people, organizations and corporations coming through to help the primary repository of the county’s past live long into the future.

“We have a jewel here that we need to preserve,” said Lew Phillips, a member of the society’s administrative committee, and chair of the first two phases of the fund-raising campaign. “The museum has the responsibility of capturing and preserving and bringing alive the history of Douglas County. And it’s not just the Civil War era, but today’s events, which will become history.”

In the campaign’s second phase, eight team leaders are being dispatched into the community with the goal of finding people to help contact at least 200 potential donors, who together would be tapped for an estimated $32,000.

Together with the $70,000 being sought as part of the first phase, society officials are confident they can erase a $31,000 deficit that only a few months ago had been anticipated for this year.

Among the reasons for optimism: Museum attendance is up 40 percent from last year, and interest generated by recent Lawrence sesquicentennial events has helped boost the museum’s profile.

Money generated by the campaign will help bolster emaciated savings accounts, create new exhibits and launch new programs, said Rebecca Phipps, museum director.

“We are operating on the bare minimum,” Phipps said. “This is to ensure our financial stability so we can continue to grow.”

Jerry Niebaum, president of the society’s board of directors, said he was pleased with the campaign’s progress. Society leaders struggled in recent years as memberships, donations and participation dwindled in the wake of the contentious dismissal of longtime museum director Steve Jansen.

Since Phipps’ arrival in February 2003, Niebaum said, the museum, 1047 Mass., has received strong support from Douglas County commissioners and growing votes of confidence from the public.

“We’ve made pretty good progress,” Niebaum said. “We have a very professional museum now — a professional staff, and I think they’re really doing a good job. There are good things happening at the museum.”