Strategic plan update
Earlier this year we completed our Strategic Plan to cover 2019–23. We also just completed our budget plan for 2020, and I want to update you on our progress. We are moving out on the following key lines of operation:
Expanding conferences to new
markets and audiences
We have planned an additional West Coast event. On 16 January 2020, we will host Profiles in
Leadership with General Pete Pace at the Marines’ Memorial Hotel and Club in San Francisco.
We also initiated a new event to cover the Department of the Navy’s Education for Sea Power initiative. Efforts to improve critical thinking skills and advance individual and organizational learning in the Navy and Marine Corps are right in our wheelhouse.
Bringing the Jack C. Taylor Conference
Center online
The groundbreaking ceremony on 18 September was wonderful, and construction is off to a strong start for the conference center. Work to complete construction will continue through 2020, and we are developing a world-class execution plan. Attracting new support for mission-aligned conferences is a priority.
Reaching new markets for our content
We have executed a memorandum of understanding with World of Warships to reach the vast gaming community with our historical content. There is a tremendous opportunity in cross promotion for Membership, Naval History magazine, and the Press.
Our goal is to increase our engagement with the enlisted audience through our new Petty Officer’s Guide, new recruit app, enlisted essay contest, and outreach. We also will engage the Sea Service family audience with more Parent’s Guides and an NROTC Guide that is due in June 2020.
Expanding our online presence
Our updated website is a hit, receiving very positive feedback since its launch in March. We will continue to improve and upgrade the site to make the user experience even more positive. We will double down on USNI News which continues to expand its audience. Efforts to increase our online page views continue across all our platforms. Proceedings page views, for example, are up more than 500 percent since 2015–16. You have told us you like the Proceedings podcast, and we will launch a Naval History podcast in 2020!
Consider a Gift for 2019. . .
As 2019 winds down, please consider making a gift and joining others who have helped us maintain momentum in our important mission this year. Work on the Jack C. Taylor Conference Center is moving ahead at full speed, and the mission work of the U.S. Naval Institute never stops. Your tax-deductible donation to the Naval Institute Foundation could buy a brick or a chair or be a part of our celestial star map (see pp. 94–95) in the new conference center. You could support the effort to digitize our vast photo archives, help bolster the Proceedings Trust, or put Proceedings in the hands of young active-duty service members by supporting the sponsored student membership programs. Find out more about our ongoing comprehensive campaign at www.campaign.usni.org.
If you are 70½ and have a 401K or IRA, current tax law allows for qualifying individuals to satisfy their required minimum distributions for the year via a qualified charitable deduction (QCD) and you can still take the standard deduction on your taxes. QCDs don’t require that you itemize which, due to the recent tax-law changes, means you may decide to take advantage of the higher standard deduction, but still use a QCD for charitable giving. Please consider the Naval Institute Foundation as a recipient of your QCD this year!
