USNI Logo

Sponsor Student Memberships for Our Future Leaders

         Donors have the opportunity to bring the benefits of Naval Institute membership directly to the next generation of naval officers and help them advance as leaders of their profession. Tax-deductible gifts can be made to underwrite student memberships for young midshipmen and cadets now enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and NROTC programs across the country. Sponsoring student memberships at the Naval War College, Naval Postgraduate School, and even division officer schools is also possible. This is a particularly effective way to honor one’s alma mater or naval training and boost future officers . . . while also strengthening the Sea Services and supporting the Institute. Professors of Naval Science, other NROTC instructors, Company Officers, and teachers associated with sponsored schools are also included in this program.

Learn More         

Proceedings Magazine Preservation & Dissemination

With philanthropic support, the Naval Institute will digitize all issues of Proceedings and create a fully integrated index from 1874 to the present, covering every page ever published, thus making 140 years of history accessible.

Technology Ventures Fund

An ongoing challenge is to move more and more Naval Institute content onto electronic devices and into the hands of those who want and need it delivered in new ways. The Naval Institute intends to fund a team and purchase the tools to keep up in this fast-evolving field. In doing so, the Institute will increase its relevance and extend its audience.

Essay Contests

With gifts, the Naval Institute will expand the scope of its essay contests to address each critical component of naval warfare. Other essay contests will address ongoing strategic issues such as the United States as a maritime nation, and pressing questions like payloads over platforms.

100 Classics of Naval History

Important works of history can be lost to current and future generations when they go out of print. The full body of work published by the Naval Institute Press (NIP) since 1899 now exceeds 1,000 titles. Using powerful eBook technology, combined with related print-on-demand capabilities, these classic works can live again. Making them available anew will end years of disappointment and frustration for those who seek them. Without donors’ help, it is possible only to convert titles piecemeal as time and resources permit. To propel the work forward, we will create a list of “100 Classics” to be made available as single copies or as a collection.

Photo Archive Preservation & Dissemination

The Naval Institute’s photo archive consists of more than 450,000 prints, slides, and negatives dating back to the Civil War—the largest private collection of naval images in the world. Though maintained in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled archive, these precious original prints are deteriorating before our eyes—curling up, turning yellow, fading away. Gifts will allow the Institute to digitize the most important photographs in its vast archive and ensure that they are preserved in effective, comprehensive, searchable fashion and available to historians, documentary film-makers, veterans and their families, and the public.

Reinvigorating the Oral History Program

Since its inception in 1969, the Naval Institute’s Oral History Program has been unrivaled in its body of in-depth personal narratives of crucial naval events, as experienced by the great naval leaders of the past century. Oral histories excel in providing rich detail often lost in official histories. In-depth interviews create an intimate, personal narrative of naval events and personalities that can otherwise seem remote and unapproachable. Gifts will underwrite oral history expenses such as the labor-intensive costs of interviewing, transcription, editing, indexing, and binding. This includes digitizing the vast archive of audio-tapes that underpin the collection and making the entire collection available as eBooks or in some other user-friendly published form.

Conferences and Events

Naval Institute conferences bring together preeminent military and civilian leaders, historians and policy-makers to discuss the challenges to the naval services, and to the Nation, at this critical moment in our history. Conference sponsorships provide the opportunity for sponsors to position themselves as generous and ongoing supporters for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. It also illustrates that the sponsor intends to play a constructive role in timely debate by fostering informed discussion of important naval issues. The Naval Institute also hosts an annual Honor’s Night and other member events around the country, giving sponsors other avenues to demonstrate their support for the Sea Services. Underwriting conferences and events provides the sponsor with recognition opportunities in print and online as well as on-site.