Editor's note:Typically, only ARRL members get to read the "It Seems to Us " editorials that run each month in QST We're posting this editorial by ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ, that appears in the February 2002 issue of QST in the hope that both ARRL members and nonmembers might appreciate it and find it informative.

It is surprising to some that the ARRL is classified as an exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This determination dates back to the 1930s and is based on our educational and scientific mission. Voluntary contributions to the ARRL for which there is no tangible benefit are tax-deductible to the extent they would be for any charity. In return we can only devote an insubstantial part of our activities to influencing legislation and cannot participate, directly or indirectly, in any candidate's political campaign, either for or against. The corporate assets of the ARRL must be used for its exempt purposes; there are no stockholders to collect dividends. In short, we share the same characteristics as thousands of religious, charitable, scientific, and educational organizations throughout the United States.

One thing that has distinguished the ARRL from most such organizations is that we have not relied on voluntary contributions to fund the bulk of our activities. The three financial pillars that have supported the ARRL through its first 88 years of existence are membership dues, advertising revenues, and the sale of publications. Historically these have been good revenue sources and the profits thus generated have been sufficient to cover our essential work for the protection, promotion, and advancement of Amateur Radio. While the ARRL has been the beneficiary of a number of generous gifts and bequests over the years, fund drives generally have had a specific project as their objective - for example, helping to build and launch an amateur satellite, the representation of Amateur Radio at a particular international conference, or the renovation and preservation of the Maxim Memorial Station, W1AW. When asked, members have always responded generously - but we didn't ask very often because we were able to pay the day-to-day bills from dues and the sale of books and advertising. This is in sharp contrast to most exempt organizations, which could not exist but for the benevolence of their contributors.

The realization that we could not continue to follow this funding strategy hit home in 1996 when a major new competitor for radio spectrum surfaced at the same time that our funding from traditional sources was reaching a low ebb. Several companies were preparing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on constellations of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide commercial messaging services. Some of them thought the two-meter and 70-cm bands would be dandy places for their "little LEO" systems. (They predicted that by this year, 2002, they would have between 51 and 56 million customers. The reality turned out to be somewhat different, of course - the commercial little LEOs are either already out of business or well on their way - but that's a story for another time.) Mounting an effective defense against the little LEOs and other looming spectrum challenges required an increased commitment to the staffing of our Technical Relations Office (see July 2001 QST, p 59) - but where was the money going to come from?

That was the start of what has become an annual drive on behalf of the Fund for the Defense of Amateur Radio Frequencies. In its first five years members contributed more than $1.6 million to the Fund. Without this support the ARRL could not have done its necessary work on behalf of Amateur Radio during those years without dangerously depleting its limited reserves. During the same time the ARRL has been the beneficiary of several bequests and gifts that have made it possible to launch initiatives such as the Certification and Continuing Education Program and the ARRL Amateur Radio Education Project.

To build on this promising beginning, in January 2001 the ARRL Board authorized the creation of a Development Department. After a national search we hired Mary Hobart as Chief Development Officer. Mary's first task when she joined the staff in October was the Defense Fund drive. She got off to a great start, raising more than $100,000 over the previous year's total. Now comes the patient effort that will be required to develop a planned giving program and other funding in support of the Education Project, a W1AW endowment, and other initiatives that are essential to a healthy future for Amateur Radio but are above and beyond what our traditional revenue sources can support.

Even as we seek to broaden its financial base, the Board and staff remain firmly committed to preserving the character of the ARRL as a membership organization. We know that our members are our most important asset. We know that tens of thousands of members spend countless hours of their time as volunteers on behalf of Amateur Radio and the ARRL. We know that not every member is in a position to offer financial support above and beyond the membership dues. But we also know the strength of our members' devotion to Amateur Radio because we are members ourselves. We know we will all do what we can, so that the enrichment that Amateur Radio has brought to our lives will touch future generations.

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