Carla Clark | For The Republic Tracey Gallion, at left, Richard McCoy, Emmit Jones, and Ryan Brand holding an oversized “high five hand” during the Landmark Columbus Foundation High Five Day at Upland Columbus Pump House, Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, May 28, 2024
It seemed fitting that Landmark Columbus Foundation leaders stood near a huge, oversized fishing lure on Tuesday — and cast their fundraising line aiming to pull in nearly $2 million more for its endowment fund by the end of 2025 for a total goal of $3 million.
The call for renewed support for the nearly $1.1 million fund unfolded at the nonprofit’s annual meeting known as High Five Day at Upland Columbus Pump House on Lindsey Street in Columbus. The artistic lure, a painstaking creation of local artist Bobby K Owens, hangs over the restaurant’s back porch where the meeting was held outdoors along the East Fork of White River before about 60 people
Attendees represented leaders in business, tourism, education, nonprofits and more. Landmark Columbus Foundation, which cares for Columbus’ cultural legacy, is best known as the umbrella agency for Exhibit Columbus, which alternates between an architectural exhibition one year and an architectural symposium the next.
High Five Day is so named because Landmark was launched on the fifth day of the fifth month in 2016. And, of course, a high five is seen as a congratulatory or celebratory greeting, several of which actually happened at the Pump House.
Ryan Brand stood near the front of assembled guests wearing an oversized, homemade, cardboard hand that people reached up and enthusiastically high-fived.
“I actually made it for a music festival I’m going to next weekend, and I thought it was appropriate for today,” Brand said.
What also seemed appropriate for the day and the vision of a $3 million endowment — and later, probably a $5 million endowment for sometime in the future, according to foundation board chair Mark Elwood — was invoking the spirit of late, longtime community industrialist and leader J. Irwin Miller.
Elwood said he couldn’t help but think of Miller because he knows Miller never took the easy path toward any sharply envisioned goal for then-Cummins Engine Co. or any other of his passions.
“I don’t think he ever thought, “Is this the fastest way?’” Elwood said. “I’m guessing he didn’t say that the fastest way is the right way.”
To get to the $3 million goal, Elwood broke the need into general segments:
- Maybe 24 major donors giving $10,000 to $100,000 over two years.
- Maybe 50 donors giving $1,000 to $10,000 over two years.
- Maybe 500 or more donors giving several hundred dollars to $1,000 over two years.
- And a generous number of smaller donors.
”The smaller donors, they put wind in your sails,” Elwood said. “They put fuel in your engine, they give us the momentum we need, the reinforcement we need to keep doing this work.”
Elwood pointed out that building the endowment to $3 million would allow Landmark to spend perhaps 5 percent of that total each year for everything from retaining staff to a range of community projects.
Richard McCoy, founding executive director of the nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation, told the gathering that the entity is, at its heart, about more than Modernist and related structures.
“People is what we’re built on,” McCoy said, holding up a copy of the foundation’s colorful annual report titled “People.” “You may think we’re about art and architecture, but we’re actually about you and about us (as people). And so we’re building a community that cares for this place. It’s a privilege to do, and I get to do it with a lot of amazing humans.”
He introduced the Landmark staff and praised their work.
Landmark Columbus By the Numbers
- Budget: 2.0 million
- Exhibit Columbus Revenue: $63,824
- Individual contributions: $157,892
- Corporate contributions: $111,907
Landmark Columbus By the Numbers
- Budget: 2.0 million
- Exhibit Columbus Revenue: $63,824
- Individual contributions: $157,892
- Corporate contributions: $111,907
