CWPT Launches 'The Great Task' $90M Campaign
By Deborah Fitts
June 2004 NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Citing the loss of "just over one acre of hallowed ground every hour," Civil War Preservation Trust President James Lighthizer kicked off his nonprofit's first-ever capital campaign April 24 at the Trust's annual conference in Nashville.

Lighthizer said the campaign, which has been in the planning for more than a year, will seek to raise $90 million in five years to save 25,000 acres of core battlefield.

"The message is, time is running out," said Lighthizer in a telephone interview following the conference. "The window of opportunity to save these battlefields is 20 years. We're the last generation that's going to have that opportunity."

If successful, the campaign would double the Trust's current pace of about 2,500 acres preserved annually. In the last 15 years, according to the Trust, 18,000 acres have been saved.

"This is far and away the most ambitious project we've ever been involved in," said Lighthizer. The campaign is dubbed "The Great Task," borrowing from a phrase in Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address."

Lighthizer said the Trust calculated the "rate of disappearance" of battlefield land at 8,000 to 10,000 acres a year. "We asked how much we could step up" fundraising efforts, he said, "and we decided to double our output."

Trust spokesman Jim Campi acknowledged that the campaign sets a "far more ambitious goal" than anything the Trust has attempted before. "But it's something that we feel at this point in our organizational existence that we've got the infrastructure to go after something like this." Five staffers are involved in the fundraising, an increase of one over last year.

More than half the money, $65 million, is expected to come from public matching grants, and the rest from private donations. Lighthizer identified the major federal sources as a transportation-enhancement grant program, which offers $600 million annually in a highly competitive process; the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, which has $80 million in yearly grants; and the Land & Water Conservation Fund, which has several million dollars available.

Lighthizer said about 30 percent of Trust acquisitions will be purchase of development rights on battlefield land, and the other 70 percent will be outright purchase of land.

Besides seeking significant federal, state and local funding, Lighthizer said the Trust will step up appeals to its more than 50,000 members. "I believe the members are willing," he said. And the Trust will continue to "identify and cultivate" large donors.

Early this year, former board of trustees member Norman Tomlinson offered a $1 million challenge grant to encourage-age board members to hike their levels of personal giving. Lighthizer said the trustees have met the challenge. Additionally, more than $1.1 million has already been raised from other donors, he said.

In preparation for the campaign, the Trust initiated its "Vanguard Project" to identify and prioritize the battlefields of greatest significance and with the greatest likelihood of preservation success. Lighthizer said of about 280,000 acres of core battlefield not yet protected, "we save 1 percent a year while we're losing 4 to 5 percent. Given that fact, the alarm bells have gone off."

More information on the "Great Task" campaign is available from the Trust's Development Department at 800-CW-TRUST, ext. 202.