| BACKGROUND | Our Class leadership determined that we will present a gift to the United States Military Academy on the occasion of our 25th Reunion in 2005. As such, we are beginning a campaign to raise the needed funds. A Class Gift should be just that, a gift from the Class to our alma mater. To meet this aspiration, our vision is that everyone contributes to the class gift - 100% participation, no matter the size of the gifts received. As a minimum, we will attempt to contact 100% of the class to seek participation. This will permit us to truly be one when we present our gift to West Point at our 25th Reunion. The Fund Raising Committee needs volunteers!!! Contact Bob Morris is interested in volunteering . . . Ready to give???? Click here to donate now! You can donate by cash, credit card, electronic funds transfer, government allotment, gifts in kind and gifts of property using this secure AOG link. Make sure you indicate "Class Gift Account" under "Account" and enter "1980" for the graduation year so our account is properly credited. You can make one time payments or pledges for a specified period of time. TOP |
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| Campaign | |||
| Our official fund raising campaign for our Class Gift will begin on 1 October
2000 and run through our reunion in the year 2005. We will seek one time
gifts, corporate matching gifts, gifts of stock, and/or monthly EFT/payroll pledges
in order to meet our monetary goal. Gifts given since 1 January 2000 will
be counted for the purposes of recognizing giving levels. TOP |
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| Goal | |||
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The monetary goal for the Class of 1980 is
$500,000 to be offered to USMA at
our reunion in 2005. This amount was derived in consultation with the Gift
Committee. The baseline gift we are seeking from each classmate
is $19.80 per month for 5 years for a total of $1,180. If 423 class
members
contributed this amount towards the $500K, we will meet our goal; if all 913
class members contribute $19.80 per month, we will raise over $1 million! We
do recognize that
people are at different life stages and that giving levels will vary
greatly. Some will give more and some will give less. We do ask that
everyone contributes some amount. We
are confident that the sum of our contributions will meet our goal and perhaps
set some funds aside towards our next gift. TOP |
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| Progress | |||
| Class Gift Fund Account Balance
is $296,0078.21. (As of 30 Apr 2003) 276 Classmates have given or pledged to give to our gift fund. All 36 companies have contributors. Company D-4 still leads the Corps with highest percentage contributing; Company C-1 has the highest number of contributors. Other regimental leaders (percentage) are C-1, H-2, A-3, and D-4. Company E-4 leads the way with total dollars contributed ($33,757.58). Individual company giving statistics are a click away . . . As a matter of class trivia, from Graduation Day in 1980 until 31 December 1999, classmates gave $28,610.66 to our gift account (many contributed to the West Point Fund which is separate and not reflected here). TOP |
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| Recognition | |||
| We have established the following levels of recognition for giving: |
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| First Captain | Over $25,000 | ||
| Cadet Captain | $10,000 to $25,000 | ||
| Cadet Lieutenant | $5,000 to $10,000 | ||
| Cadet Sergeant | $1,000 to $5,000 | ||
| Cadet Corporal | Up to $1,000 | ||
| The class will recognize our donors at the 25th
Reunion in a booklet listing all donors, along with the gift of lapel pins,
meals, hotel rooms, and airline tickets depending on the giving level. TOP |
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| Organization | |||
| From
the Class Listserver discussions, it is obvious that most people hate
calls from telemarketers during dinner. Thus we have established a
fund raising committee to ensure that we contact all of our classmates
and offer them the opportunity to contribute to our class gift. The
fund raising committee is organized along regimental and company lines
with each unit having a representative. These representatives will
be contacting you to determine your pledge amount. They will
report up the chain so we can ensure that we contact 100% of our living
classmates and so we can report progress towards our goal. Click
here for a list of your fund
raising committee. TOP |
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| Gift Account Management | |||
| Our
class gift account is a separate AOG account on paper only. Our
funds are mixed with all other classes and managed by AOG. The
investment strategy is low risk to protect the base value of the
funds. Investment returns are credited to classes based on their
proportion of capital invested. It is possible to invest our funds separately from AOG but both require a tremendous amount of work to establish and operate. They would require one of two approaches: (1) The class withdraws lump sum amounts from our AOG account and invests them in a separate investment account. The investments are liquidated and funneled back through AOG when the gift is given to USMA. This can be done if the proper non-profit organization is established, proper controls on the investment account are established and a mechanism is established to develop investment strategies. I'm sure we have many folks that are smarter with the details and recognize the scope of work involved. (2) The class totally separates fund raising and investing from AOG. We would be totally on our own with the same requirements as the first option but then we would also have to deal with the acceptance and processing of donations to include dealing with stocks, employer matching, etc., more extensive bookkeeping, and we would not be eligible to use the AOG services to assist the account except to receive the funds when the gift is given. The class will continue to use the AOG to collect and invest our gifts. TOP |
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| Red Sash Project | |||
| The
Red Sash print project is making money for the Class. For more
information, click here. TOP |
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Last updated on 29 June 2003