Your Moral Purpose is of Your Own Making -- Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale
What Shall Be the Class of 1981's Legacy?
What is "legacy gift giving" and how does it affect the decisions we are making today?
What project options were considered by the class officers?
What is the USNA Foundation and how does our fundraising effort fit with the overall USNA plan?
What other fundraising initiatives will we be solicited for over the next five years?
Our first class legacy gift is more than just a donation to the Naval Academy. It is an opportunity to associate our class with some aspect of the Institution by committing resources over the next 30 years and beyond. That is what a legacy is all about - how will the Class of 1981 be remembered? This first gift of $500,000 will be followed in years to come with more ambitious efforts if we follow the pattern of the majority of classes preceding us.
As you think about what our gift should be, consider the long-term ramification of our investment - this is the first installment. Our intent is to invest in the same area the next time we embark on a legacy gift campaign (which could be 5 or 10 years down the road). The class officers recommend splitting the gift with $250,000 going toward a brick and mortar-type project and $250,000 going toward Midshipmen support. This is simply because experience shows that many in the class will feel strongly one way or the other in how our money should be invested.
The advantage of a brick and mortar gift is that you can place your eyeballs on it and see first hand where your money has gone. The advantage of a Midshipmen support gift is that you are enhancing the development of our future naval leaders and adding value to the Naval Academy education/experience. Brick and mortar gifts are sunk costs, a one-time expenditure. You can subsequently reinvest another gift in that area which will also get spent in real time. On the other hand, Midshipmen support gifts live as endowments with 5% of the value being used as an annual operating fund (our $250,000 would translate into $12,500 per year). Subsequent gifts grow the endowment and allow for expanded use of the operating fund (e.g. our gift could partially fund an academic Fellow where $2 million would buy an endowed faculty chair with full professor).
As you think about what gift option to select, think in terms of our legacy. How should we associate ourselves? What growth potential does it have? What is the class’ involvement in shaping how the funds are expended?
Brick and Mortar
Museum Expansion and Renovation
A major renovation of Preble Hall will take place with public money while private money will be used to plan, design and install state of the art exhibitions. Investing in the museum as a legacy gift will make class of 1981 part of the “Syndicate” of classes who have made donations (’50, ’51, ’52, ’56, ’71, ’82, ’98). As such, we will participate with the "Syndicate" and the museum director to help influence how our money is spent. The museum director, Dr. Scott Harmon ’64, is trying to move the museum in a direction that enables it to enhance the course work of Midshipmen (six professors now use the museum on a regular basis) while at the same time telling the story of the Navy and Naval Academy in a more engaging and lively fashion. From Dr. Harmon: “It would be a pleasure, and an honor, to have the Class of 1981 join in the efforts to create a new, dynamic Museum that can better educate the midshipmen and the public. The Museum does acknowledge those who have made contributions to support our modernization. We have a small, contemplative space in which we display the class rings, the “Alumni at the Helm,” and the class crests of our supporting classes. I would be delighted to add yours to a distinguished company.”
Stadium Renovation
Navy/Marine Corps Memorial Stadium is scheduled for a $40 million renovation with all money coming from private donations (the stadium was built with private money). The renovation will be broken into 7 phases, which can be done separately, or concurrently, depending on the pace of the money raised. Our best gift opportunity is sponsorship of one of the 24 Memorial Archways spread around the stadium. Each archway will serve as entrance/exit points and represent a memorial to a battle. The name of the battle and class sponsoring the arch will be prominently displayed (and visible from far away). Within each archway will be a written bronze description of the battle and the role of the Navy and/or Marine Corps. The sponsoring class will also get recognition at that site. The purpose is to give a better sense of history and tradition to the public at the stadium. The Superintendent is hoping to get 24 classes to sponsor the archways. We would be able to pick the battle to sponsor on a first come, first-served basis (selection at the point of committing to the project, not once the money is finally raised).
Library Projects
The library has only recently gained access to private money donations with the inception of the Superintendent’s strategic plan. The overarching goal of the initiatives in this area is to “enhance the library resources/facilities to a level that is consistent with the growing needs of faculty and midshipmen and the technological advances of the 21st century.” After discussions with the library director, our gift would best be split into two areas. First, would be to fund the relocation of the graphics laboratory (part of the existing media center) into a new state of the art facility on the first floor. The cost of this relocation is $120,000 and the class of 1981 would get recognition for this laboratory. The current facility gets heavy use by midshipmen (especially TRIDENT scholars) in the creation of state-of-the art presentations that they have to give. The other half of our gift would go into the Naval Academy Heritage Webpage which is a project to illustrate the history/contribution of the academy and graduates with archived pictures and documents (copyrights held by the Naval Academy). We would also get recognition on this webpage for our contribution.
Midshipmen Support
Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics
The ethics center was established by the Secretary of the Navy in 1998. It provides relevant and innovative programs to enhance the midshipmen’s ability to deal with ethical issues they may encounter as Navy and Marine Corps officers. The class officers have narrowed our gift choice down to becoming official sponsor to an existing Ethics Essay Award for Third Class Midshipmen. The Ethics Center sponsors a competition and prize (warning: this link has several pictures and takes time to load) for the best ethics essay written each semester in the Naval Academy’s core ethics course (NE203). Each military instructor in the course nominates the writer of the best paper in his/her section. Then the civilian ethics faculty in The Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law narrow the nominees down to four to six finalists. The Ethics Center gives the finalists' essays to three readers from outside NE203; they select the overall winner. The Superintendent hosts a dinner to honor all the best paper writers and to present awards to the finalists. The senior military and civilian leadership of the Naval Academy gathers at this event to honor the outstanding ethics work of these midshipmen. This event occurs twice a year at the approximate cost of $5,500.00 for each event, totaling $11,000 annually. Currently the Superintendent pays for this unnamed competition out of his discretionary funds. Our sponsorship would accomplish two things: it would give a name and associate a class with the award/competition and it would free up discretionary money for the Superintendent. If we become the sponsors, then we would get the recognition twice a year and have class representatives at the dinners, probably to help the Superintendent hand out awards. We could also distribute the winning essay to people in our class who want to read what the midshipmen are writing about. One idea is to name this: “The Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence ’51, Essay Award” sponsored by the Class of 1981.
Leadership Development Enhancements
The overall strategic initiative is to combine several existing efforts in leadership development with new programs to further improve leadership teaching and learning in and out of the classroom. In consultation with Corky Vasquez, ’81, Leadership Department Chair, our $250,000 endowment gift could best be used in supporting the Visiting Leadership Fellows program. This program funds a full time instructor who absorbs the teaching load of a Fleet Lieutenant who then goes off to get a Master’s Degree in Leadership (the same program that Company Officers go through) and returns to teach. We would have to combine efforts with other classes to fund this because it takes nearly $80,000 per year for a Fellow. There is currently one Fellow teaching and the strategic plan has four.
Academic Excellence
Investing our endowment into the area of academics would allow us to support a classroom or laboratory facility, or partially funding a Research Fellow. We have several classmates on the faculty who would assist in ensuring our endowment would go toward a true need within an academic discipline. There are too many directions this can take to target a specific project at this point. Suffice to say that our gift would support core academic development of midshipmen.
The US Naval Academy Foundation is the single fundraising entity for the Naval Academy and the Alumni Association, and it runs the US Naval Academy Foundation Campaign. The Campaign is a seven-year fundraising program that was kicked off in 1999 in support of the USNA strategic plan. The strategic plan has a number of goals and objectives, of which some can be funded publicly (that is, by taxpayers) and some must be funded privately (through individuals and class projects). The money needed to support the private portion of the strategic plan is $175M by 2006, which is the same year as the Class of 1981’s 25th homecoming celebration.
To help raise money for the USNA Campaign and beyond, the USNA Foundation has established the Legacy Gift Program. The Legacy Gift Program is a structured cycle of class giving. The Legacy Gift Program consists of three types of giving, Class giving (which provides funds for a specific use or project), Annual Giving (which provides general funds for the Naval Academy, for emergent needs), and Major/Planned gifts from individual donors.
What '81 is being asked to do is provide support in two areas of giving. The first area is a class project. A class project is a specifically targeted fundraising effort. The money raised for a class project is only used for that project. In that sense, the funds are "restricted." Class gifts are typically targeted at "brick and mortar" projects (like the USNA visitor center) or endowments that benefit the brigade in perpetuity.
The second area where our support is requested is for the USNA Foundation Annual Fund. Each year the USNA foundation solicits funds from all alumni for the Annual Fund. The Annual Fund provides discretionary funds for the Naval Academy to meet unexpected needs. Since the money is not targeted toward a specific project, the funds are referred to as "unrestricted." When donors provide unrestricted funds, they trust the Naval Academy leadership to apply the contributions where the need is greatest.
In addition class projects (restricted funds) and the USNA Annual fund (unrestricted funds), alumni are solicited for other fundraising efforts. For example, alumni that were affiliated with the Navy squash program were recently asked to contribute to the project to upgrade the Navy squash facilities. The squash project fundraising effort was coordinated by the Naval Academy Foundation. Finally, alumni are solicited by ad-hoc groups for donations, for example, the Navy hockey club. These ad-hoc fundraising efforts are not coordinated by the Naval Academy Foundation, and often occur without the Foundation's knowledge.
For our Class project and the USNA Annual Fund, we can expect to be solicited for donations according the following schedule:
- 2002 - Initial pledge and first installment of funds to support a class project (restricted funds). We will not be solicited for the Annual Fund (unrestricted funds) in 2002.
- 2003 to 2005 - Follow on installments of the class project pledge. In these years, we will also be asked to give to the Annual Fund.
- Alumni affiliation and Ad-Hoc fundraising will occur under no specific schedule or interval.