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Giving

Campaign Letter

Dear Classmates:

As you recall from our class business meeting at our 45th reunion in October, our 50th Reunion Legacy Campaign will formally kick off next month (March). Since the reunion, we’ve been identifying and working with the vendor that will help us with the mailings and the solicitation calls to all of you. We’ve also been preparing materials, and quietly contacting our top donors from the past to confirm their participation and to pledge early.

So, we’re already off to a good start toward raising the $5 Million and meeting our 50% participation rate goals. So far, in the pre-campaign, we’ve raised $1.3 Million (including match). Keep in mind our “anonymous” classmate has agreed to match any campaign donation up to a total of $2.5 Million, meaning the rest of us only need to come up with the other $2.5 Million! For example, if you pledge $1000 per year for five years, that’s a $5000 pledge, matched by another $5000 by our anonymous classmate, equalling $10,000!

This message is to primarily remind you of what will be occurring over the next few months:

  • For the remainder of the February pre-campaign, the Campaign Committee (19 of our classmates) will be telephoning the top 100 candidates from our class to solicit their support for the upcoming campaign, which will kick off in March.
  • We’ll send out solicitation letters to the entire class on February 28th
  • Solicitation calls will begin in monthly “waves” on March 7th, and continue through the summer until we’ve contacted 100% of our class. We hope to wrap up by year-end.

Let me summarize again the four project components of our $5 Million campaign:

  1. $2.5 Million will go toward the Athletic Facility & Excellence Fund. Our gift will support the Terwilliger Physical Center, which will house the 1972 Sports Performance & Rehabilitation Center (the new ’72 Misery Hall) that will serve ALL mids, not just the varsity athletes.
  2. $1 Million will support the Distinguished Military Professor for Character Development, which our class has continuously funded for the last 15 years. This tranche will conclude our support, which will pass to another class around 2025.
  3. $750,000 will support the Project-Based Learning Fund, which supports hardware and logistics costs for capstone projects required of engineering majors. Interdisciplinary teams of mids conceive, design, build, and test autonomous land, air, and sea vehicles, low earth-orbit satellites, cockpits of the future, remote sensing systems, and other things we never dreamed of as mids.
  4. $750,000 will support the Naval Academy Fund, which provides funding to be used at the Supe’s discretion to support USNA’s mission. The Naval Academy Fund additionally funds both the Foundation and the Alumni Association, allowing us to enjoy the benefits from each.

Thanks for your help & support to make this a campaign that will go down in history as NO OTHER CLASS HAS RAISED $5 MILLION IN A USNA CLASS CAMPAIGN! Due to the generosity of our anonymous classmate, I really think we can achieve BOTH the $5 Million AND the 50% participation goal!

Jeff Beard ’72;  Class Fundraising Chair

The Naval Academy Annual Fund is a versatile, unrestricted fund that allows the Superintendent flexibility to meet emerging needs of the Academy and underwrites mission-critical activities of the U. S. Naval Academy Alumni Association/Foundation to serve the Academy and all Alumni. Annual Fund gifts are put to work immediately where they are needed most.
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