Maybe We've Been a Little Too Subtle

by Vince Durnan

Just wondering if you remember, or even knew about in the first place, our Centennial Campaign? Here's a progress report. There's actually quite a bit to say.
Let's go back before we move forward. Several years ago our Board stood close to announcing an endowment-only or endowment-mostly effort to build the long term financial resources of the school. Then came the autumn of 2008's discontent. Our prudent, non-tone-deaf course seemed to be in the direction of taking a deep breath and waiting a while. When the topic arose a few years later, USN's 100th birthday loomed directly in our path.
 
To best celebrate that milestone, the big ask turned out to be a request that we all pull together to ride out a 50,000 square foot renovation/restoration/expansion project touching every level of the original Demonstration School building. This project took every bit of the ten months allotted, and we cut the ribbon just in time to open our Centennial year.

What followed were about ten more months of events, publications, and observances to commemorate our history. And if you recall, there was no special philanthropic push layered on top of that busy calendar.
 
Then came August, 2015--the start of this very school year, and behind the Popsicle Party table we unfurled a banner full of beautiful USN faces. Thus launched the I'm One message and One School. Our Future. A Campaign for University School of Nashville. We made the formal announcement that we had indeed set goals for raising a record sum to support all facets of what we do here on Edgehill Avenue. If you don't remember your arm being twisted or a guilt trip being aimed your way, that's no surprise. But our Development Office friends and a host of volunteers have been working daily to connect aspirations with accomplishments.
 
The quick addition is as follows: double our endowment ($10MM), pay for all physical improvements to the building, cafeteria included ($8MM), fund initiatives K-12 to enhance our programs ($3MM), and include the all-important Annual Fund giving during the campaign period ($7MM), for a four part total of $28MM. The aim is for all of us to give in a way that expresses USN as a priority in our households--current families, families of alumni, the alumni themselves, and our many friends in the community.
 
Would you be surprised to hear that we have crested $22M in that effort so far? Would you be happy to know that we've funded several need-based scholarships, a new endowed chair in teaching, numerous curricular projects (including a groundbreaking effort with our university neighbors), and kept very much on pace with annual giving all the while? Do you wonder how it happened?
 
Ours is a beautifully modest donor culture. Gifts don't feel transactional, nor do initiatives feel proprietary--something sadly rare in a "look at me" philanthropic age. One unintended result of our culture is that it can end up looking like things happen by magic or at least by osmosis. Nothing could be further from the truth. We're actually working harder and more determinedly than ever, and you should know that.
 
My recurrent worry, or at least one of them, is that we'll reach the official end of this Campaign asking time in 2017 only to hear from a segment of USN constituents who say, "How come no one asked me?" The simplest antidote for that possible affliction would be to give me/us a call and share your interest in doing something special in celebration of our historic moment on this educational stage. Believe me, you won't have to ask twice, and if you give in a way that's significant for you, it will be significant to us, practically and symbolically.
 
When I got to USN in 2000, the only promise made to me that was not in fact immediately honored was that I didn't need to worry about fundraising. Volunteers did all that, quietly and sensitively, and my attentions were to be directed elsewhere. As I grew into this role, it progressively became more natural to be out front asking for dollars to fuel the engine that drives us forward. Serendipitously, it just gets easier to ask as my understanding of our potential deepens year by year. I dearly love the quiet donor culture and I see the good that it does--it just takes a little more from each of us to really make it thrive.
 
Amazed that it's springtime already,
Vince
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USN Mission: 
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.