Happy March 1st & St. David’s Day!
Posted: 3/2/2018
Our class legacy campaign will launch this month, and next week we’ll begin the process of sending out e-mails, letters, and beginning the phone calling process. The Class Campaign Committee has been busy during the pre-campaign making contact with 100 or so of the top class participants from previous campaigns. Almost all said they are planning to participate in the campaign, and look forward to the call from one of our reps. We have briefed the vendor and the reps that will be making the call, and I’d have to say they look impressive! Here’s a quick synopsis on where we stand as of March 1st:
- We ran a behind-the-scenes pre-campaign to ensure we were on target with both the projects and our ability to hit the $5 Million goal. I’m pleased to say that both objectives were met. We’ve already been able to raise $350,000 for the “Class of ’72 Sports Performance & Rehabilitation Center”, about the same amount for the DMP, $65,000 for the Project-Based Learning Fund, and $450,000 for the Naval Academy Fund from the classmates contacted during the pre-campaign. With the match from our anonymous classmate, this puts us at almost half of our $5 Million goal!
- As mentioned, we’ll kick off the formal campaign this month, and we hope to finish up with most of the class by the end of June. Calls to the class will be made in “tranches” with the letters and e-mails going out first, followed by the call. We hope in this way you all can be on the lookout for the call. The reps may try up to 15 timesto ensure we reach as many as we can in the class.
- Our gift goal is $5 million – Largest USNA Class Gift goal ever! We have a very generous classmate who is challenging the rest of us to raise $2.5 million for our 50thReunion Gift. He will match our donations dollar for dollar up to $2.5 million. $2.5 + $2.5 = $5 million! Remember, he will only match what we give! Our participation rate goal is 50% of the class!
- Our Gift Will Support: (1) Moral (2) Mental and (3) Physical dimensions of midshipmen development
- Our class gift initiatives:
- $2.5 Million raised will support the 1972 Athletic Facility and Excellence Fund. Do you remember “Misery Hall?” The place we used to go to get taped up, rubbed down, and otherwise repaired so we could continue to compete in our chosen sports. Our gift will support construction of the Terwilliger Physical Mission Center, which, if we meet our $2.5 million goal, will house the 1972 Sports Performance and Rehabilitation Center – the new ’72 Misery Hall that will serve all mids, not just varsity athletes.
- $1 Million raised will support the 1972 Distinguished Military Professor in Character Development. This will extend and conclude the Class of 1972’s 15 years of support for this critical position!
- $750,000 raised will support the 1972 Project Based Learning Fund. Our gift will support hardware and logistic costs for capstone projects required of all engineering majors. Interdisciplinary teams of mids conceive, design, build, test, and sometimes redesign, rebuild and retest autonomous land, air and sea vehicles, low-earth-orbit satellites, cockpits of the future, remote sensing systems, and other things we never dreamed possible as mids!
- $750,000 raised will support the Naval Academy Fund, which provides funding to be used at the Supe’s discretion to support the USNA mission. The Naval Academy Fund fully funds the operation of the USNA Foundation and helps provide the Alumni Association benefits and services we all enjoy.
Collectively I can tell you we are all making a difference. Thank you for your willingness to play your part in this impressive class campaign that will go down as the largest legacy class campaign in USNA history!
Jeff Beard
Class Fundraiser
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