On the 53rd anniversary of TFAS’s founding, President Roger Ream ‘76 raised his glass in a toast and announced the successful completion of our 50th Anniversary Liberty + Leadership Campaign.
To the memory of the TFAS founders; To their wisdom and foresight, let’s toast. To the mission of developing leaders – our true, everlasting guidepost. Raise your glass to our campaign just completed; To the teachers and students we teach. To the values of liberty and justice, and greater milestones now onward to reach.” – Roger Ream, TFAS President
WATCH A VIDEO OF THE FOUNDERS’ DAY CELEBRATION
Two years ago, following the conclusion of our 50th anniversary year, TFAS undertook a strategic evaluation and announced the largest fundraising effort in the organization’s history – a comprehensive goal to raise $25 million over two years to accelerate our growth, extend our reach and deepen our impact. Thanks to the generosity of thousands of TFAS supporters, alumni and volunteers, we surpassed our $25 million goal.
Campaign Chairman Eric Tanenblatt ’87, himself an alumnus of TFAS programs, reflected on this momentous achievement as it was announced during the TFAS Founders’ Day celebration on Feb. 6 at the Fairmont in Washington, D.C.
“I was honored to be asked to chair the Liberty + Leadership Campaign as a way to give back to the organization that has meant so much to me,” said Tanenblatt. “The campaign allowed us to launch a new scholarship initiative for our summer programs, expand our educational offerings for young professionals, introduce new on-campus programs, and reach thousands more students with our transformational programs … But, more importantly, it helps to ensure the next 50 years of TFAS.”
Among its achievements, the 50th Anniversary Liberty + Leadership Campaign allowed TFAS to:
- Create the Leadership Scholars Program, providing full, merit-based annual scholarships for up to 25 outstanding collegiate leaders to attend TFAS academic internship programs in Washington, D.C. and yearlong professional development and continuing education programming.
- Expand TFAS Journalism Fellowships to include the Joseph Rago Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Journalism with The Wall Street Journal and enriching new programming in New York City and Washington, D.C.
- Launch the “Venezuela: My Story … Your Future?” project, enlisting the help of Venezuelan exiles Andrés Guilarte and Jorge Galicia to visit college campuses and warn about the dangers of socialist policies.
- Enrich the TFAS Public Policy Fellowship by broadening our applicant outreach and creating a more robust program with additional retreats, meetings and professional development opportunities.
- Hire Dr. Anne Bradley full-time as the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and TFAS academic director.
- Create the TFAS Campus Lecture Series to reach more students with TFAS lessons and curriculum, bringing the ideas of liberty to campuses across the U.S.
- Establish the “Liberty + the Future: NYC Alumni Lecture Series,” an exclusive opportunity for TFAS alumni in the New York area to connect and think critically about the ideas and issues that impact a free society.
- Combat economic ignorance by launching additional programming for high school teachers, helping our educator teach economics in exciting new ways.
- Reach 100 members of the TFAS Legacy Society, a distinguished group recognizing generous supporters who have included TFAS in their estate plans.
Tanenblatt thanked everyone who invested in the campaign for making these achievements possible. He assured them that he knows firsthand the impact that TFAS can have on a student’s life. “It was TFAS that lit the spark in me, igniting a passion for policy, politics and government and I will forever be grateful.” After attending TFAS programs, Tanenblatt went on to serve in the administrations of three U.S. presidents and is the current global chair of public policy and regulations at Dentons, the world’s largest law firm.
The Founders’ Day celebration and campaign announcement brought together 140 TFAS students, alumni, supporters, faculty and friends to commemorate the accomplishments of the campaign and to pledge a recommitment to teaching liberty and leadership to rising generations for decades more to come. Between the alumni and student attendees, all six decades of TFAS programs were represented during the evening event.
Watch and read about the transformative impact of the campaign from three TFAS alumni whose lives were changed through campaign-funded programs: TFAS.org/CampaignImpact
A Recommitment to Teaching Liberty + Leadership
I want to extend my thanks to Roger [Ream], Steve [Slattery] and the whole TFAS staff for helping more and more students understand how important liberty is to having the life we have here.”– Frayda Levy, TFAS Supporter
Watch and Read Levy’s Reflections on Why She Supports TFAS
Though an ambitious goal was met, President Ream reminded those in the room of the continued relevancy of TFAS programs and the need to ensure that we are able to teach liberty and leadership to rising generations in perpetuity.
“TFAS provides a place where people who see the world through differing lenses, can come together to talk and consider which ideas and which institutions best promote human flourishing … With freedom in retreat as it is in much of the world, including the U.S., TFAS is steadfast in providing a classroom where students undertake a balanced examination of American history and the economic ideas and the civic virtues that sustain our Republic and unite us as one people, endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights,” said Ream. “We seek nothing less than to help young people rediscover the self-evident truths that sustain the American experience of liberty.”
Over 3,700 individuals supported the TFAS 50th Anniversary Liberty + Leadership Campaign. We are so grateful to those who contributed and helped us reach our goal. Thank you for investing in young leaders and helping us to teach them the lessons of liberty and leadership. We would also like to give special thanks to Charlie Black for leading our campaign leadership during the evaluation and planning period, and Eric Tanenblatt for serving as our campaign leadership chairman. Thank you.
View more photos from the TFAS Founders’ Day celebration on Facebook.