From the Secretary: Looking ahead
The recent Regents’ meeting on January 31st was one of the most important held since I started as Secretary of the Smithsonian. Three new Regents were introduced, the Smithsonian’s first National Campaign was approved, the challenges of the federal budget were reviewed, and the recommendations of the McCarter Panel concerning the Hide/Seek controversy were adopted.
New Regents
Rep. Steve LaTourette
New members of our Board of Regents were announced at the meeting: Rep. Steve LaTourette (R.) of the 14th District of Ohio and Sen. Jack Reed (D.) of Rhode Island. Both are leading members of Congress and are members of appropriation committees. A new citizen member of the Board was nominated: entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Case; he awaits Senate confirmation.
National Campaign
Beginning with the remarkable bequest by our founder, James Smithson, philanthropy has been an essential part of the funding that supports our mission. Today, gifts make up 11 percent of our annual budget and our endowment exceeds $1 billion. Yet, as impressive as these figures are, they are not enough to achieve the ambitious goals of our strategic plan. We will always need private funds to supplement our federal support.
Sen. Jack Reed
For all of the fundraising the Smithsonian has done in the past, it has never undertaken a comprehensive campaign, something that is common in the university world and growing in importance in other parts of the nonprofit sector. At the January meeting, our Regents took the historic step of authorizing our first-ever National Campaign. This approval was based on two years of planning and the hard work of nearly 200 people across the Institution who attended more than 300 organizational meetings. Our Regents participated actively and provided leadership through their Advancement Committee, chaired by Regent Alan Spoon. Meetings were held with all of our 30 advisory boards to insure that they had the opportunity to help shape the National Campaign to best fit their unit programs and goals. This was truly a team effort involving all segments of the Smithsonian and I am grateful to all who made it possible.
Steve Case is awaiting confirmation as a Citizen Regent.
The campaign will unfold over the next seven years, allowing us to use the first few years to ramp up in terms of staffing and systems support. We have yet to set a financial goal for the campaign; we expect not only to increase giving significantly, but also to double or even triple the number of people who support the Smithsonian. This new donor base will help the Smithsonian for a long time to come. Through a carefully designed process, donation plans for each of our museums and research centers have been established based on unit needs and the knowledge of what motivates a donor to contribute. Each unit has a campaign plan that aligns with our strategic plan, so we remain focused on those objectives that are the keys to our future. The campaign will provide us with funding to tackle new initiatives, secure the best talent, attract visiting scholars and take on major building projects. It is comprehensive, so all units participate and benefit.
The Arts and Industries Building is undergoing an extensive renovation.
The National Campaign has three phases: planning, quiet and public. As we complete the final stages of the planning phase, we are transitioning into a quiet, two- to three-year period where we will test our ideas and build giving capacity through leadership gifts in advance of a public launch for the campaign. We have already begun to see the results of our early efforts. In the first quarter of this year, we raised $67 million—the best first quarter in the past decade, and the best December to date. Realizing the importance of the campaign, our current close donors contributed early gifts to jump-start this year’s goal of $175 million.
Our hard work in creating a vibrant and dynamic strategic plan, the efforts ongoing with our Smithsonian Redesign, and the development of our first-ever National Campaign are helping us now, and will help us in the future, as we make our case for assistance in both the private and public sectors. These efforts are connected and signal that we are more entrepreneurial, innovative and deserving of support.
Fiscal Challenges
The Regents’ meeting was also a time to review a federal budget situation that is currently in flux and difficult to predict. Though discussions I have held with our Congressional Regents, Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew and key members of Congress, it is clear that budget reductions are coming for all federal agencies and that these reductions will not be restored in the near future. At the same time, I have been encouraged that many of our public stakeholders have a broad understanding of our special mission.
The House floor.
We do not control our destiny when it comes to what the federal government will choose to do about budgets, so we need to actively prepare for possibilities and challenges. We have frozen federal hiring and discretionary spending to capture funding that would offset cuts that might be needed in the short term. I have also asked that we begin planning for a range of budget options that would carry through 2015, the life of our strategic plan. We will be working with our new Director’s Advisory Group and seeking information and thoughts from all of our museums and research centers. The goal is to do all we can to keep our momentum in the face of constrained federal appropriations.
Given our status as an independent federal trust instrumentality, we are fortunate that we can help ourselves by improving our trust funding. This does not replace federal funding on a one-to-one basis, but it does provide a fiscal source that can fuel opportunity and help us drive important initiatives. It is fortunate that we have prepared to undertake the National Campaign, which will be an important element in building our trust funding base. Other sources of trust funding will derive from external contracts and grants and business enterprises, both of which showed increases this past year. Working together, I am confident that we can create a more self-reliant Smithsonian.
NPG’s Hide/Seek and Regents Advisory Panel Report
The Regents Advisory Panel was created to look ahead and learn from the controversy that arose from the exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture. Led by Regent John McCarter, the panel also included Earl (“Rusty”) Powell, director of the National Gallery of Art and David Gergen, Harvard professor, CNN analyst and White House advisor to four Presidents. The report, which is available online, contains recommendations that will serve us well in the future.
The report supports the actions I have already taken, including the formation of the Director’s Advisory Group, the creation of the post of senior art advisor to the Under Secretary of History, Art, and Culture, and the plan to hold a forum in April on the role of public museums and exhibitions that address sensitive topics. The report also provides thoughtful observations and recommendations about how to improve communications and coordination when future controversies arise in a world where news cycles are much faster than in the past.
Importantly, the report expresses support for Smithsonian Directive 603 and the responsibility vested in curators and directors for planning and mounting exhibitions. It also states that the Smithsonian should remain committed to its historic role in tackling new ideas and topics that deal with important societal transitions.
The Regents have asked that I develop a plan to address their recommendations. We are already working on this. The plan will be developed based on input from our directors and other senior staff.
Through the fast-moving activities of the past few months, it is notable that we concluded a year where we hosted over 30 million visits, mounted 100 new exhibitions, maintained a high level of scholarship, continued our important work in Haiti and had one of our best years in philanthropy. I am grateful to be working with an outstanding group of fellow employees and volunteers who continue to do the important work of the Smithsonian.
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Posted: 11 February 2011
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