Foundation for the Future Campaign Summary

Foundation for the Future Campaign Concludes and Exceeds Goals

GCAF Mission: to perpetuate the German Club and serve as a unifying force by bringing German Club alumni together in continuing fellowship to foster leadership for service to the German Club, its alumni and Virginia Tech.

The participating members of the first Foundation for the Future Campaign meeting. The Foundation for the Future Endowment Campaign concluded on June 30, 2022 and exceeded every measure of success that we established. Foremost, we raised $3.6 million against a $2 million goal. There had been a desire to enlarge our endowment for some decades. With this Campaign, we have established a firm foundation (pun intended) to further invest in the GCAF mission. Thank you to each of you who supported the campaign.

Serious Campaign planning commenced in early 2016. The committee settled on a $2 million goal at an in-person committee meeting with some inspiration from our VP of Development, T.O. Williams. We accepted the challenge, but at the same time many of us worried if we could reach the goal. At the time, the GCAF endowment stood at a little over $2.85 million and we committed to increase it by approximately 70%. A year later, and in time for the 125th German Club Anniversary, our confidence grew. We officially launched the campaign with $1 million in combined gifts received and commitments - more commitments than actual receipts at the time. The remaining challenge was to convert the commitments and raise another $1 million.

We sought advice from several German Club Alumni and friends that were development professionals. Each person reminded us of the unique challenge we faced in running a capital campaign with no tangible asset to inspire donors, such as a new building or an addition. However, each person also reminded us of unique benefit we had in our favor – each of you, our German Club Alumni. In our favor was the deeply rooted passion we hold for The German Club. The effect that our student experience had in shaping us, as well as the cherished friendships that we developed along the way crosses generations of alumni. This love of the German Club and the desire to give future generations access to similar experiences is the intangible capital asset

Figure 1 - Donors by Decade

Figure 2 - Gifts Received by Size

that we have sustained. The intangible “Foundation” that we raised capital to build is future generations of German Club men.

As expected, or as we all have experienced as German Club men, you rose to the challenge. As noted previously, we raised $3.6 million against a $2 million goal. $2.3 million in donations have been received; the remainder are outstanding pledges and legacy commitments. As you can see in Figure 1, we had widespread support across generations in terms of the number of gifts, as well as the dollar amount. 722 unique donors contributed to the campaign, which represents nearly 30% of our alumni. By way of comparison, Virginia Tech has only recently exceeded 20% in alumni giving.

As we have reiterated throughout the campaign, every gift counts. The median gift size for the campaign was $100, which means half of the gifts received were less than $100 and half were greater. You can see in Figure 2 that gifts of all sizes were needed to reach our goal of $2 million. While we felt anxious about the prospects of increasing the size of the endowment by 70%, we exceeded it.

Through direct contributions via the Campaign and growth from interest earned, our endow-

ment is now greater than $5 million, as shown on page 23 of this Forum. Our intent is to sustain continued moderate growth in the endowment with regular additions to its principal and earned interest on its principal. None of this would be possible without the hundreds of you who contributed to the campaign. We can’t thank you enough … Thank you!!

Starting on page 24, we recognize each individual who contributed to the success of the Campaign. We also recognized gifts of $2500 or more with personalized pavers that were installed on the Cutchin’s Terrace at the Manor. Three hundred seventy-five pavers have been installed to date.

We owe gratitude, in particular, to three individuals who were instrumental in launching this campaign that, sadly, passed before they could see the full success of their contributions. Sid Oaksmith, Class of 1977, and President of the GCAF, challenged the Board to an endowment campaign and initiated its planning. T.O. Williams, Class of 1959, the VP of Development for the GCAF, organized the initial plans and formally announced the campaign at the 125th German Club Anniversary. Michael Carisetti, Class of 2007, the GCAF Executive Director, led the analysis and preparation needed to launch the Campaign. The energy and spirit that Sid, T.O., and ‘Setti injected into the Campaign was We celebrate the success of the Foundation for the Future Campaign and its conclusion. However, the need to raise funds annually to support the operations of the GCAF does not end. With an increased endowment, we have reduced the burden on annual giving to fund GCAF operations, but we have not eliminated it. As shown in Figure 3, Annual giving remains a significant percentage of the source of funds for annual operations. I think we all agree that we should continue to ask our alumni to support annually to sustain a healthy appreciation and vested interest in the organization.

As we look to the future, we look to maintain and even expand the increased engagement we have experienced during the Campaign. Increased engagement leads to a more vibrant and connected alumni community, which leads to greater participation rates.

Once again, THANK YOU for your support of the Campaign. We look forward to your engagement.

Brian Dunch Class of 1993 Vice President of Development

FY23 GCAF Revenue Sources