Programs and results
What we aim to solve
By executing its mission to honor and champion the relevance today of the life and leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower through compelling programs and events that celebrate his legacy, the Eisenhower Foundation aims to solve the problem of forgetting -- forgetting Eisenhower and his accomplishments and how they impacted our country, our world and our freedoms. We want people to remember him and his sacrifices because he taught and in many ways, is still teaching us so much. Interest in Dwight D. Eisenhower continues to grow. Recently, new records from his military career and presidency were declassified from our Library holdings, and more and more K-12 students are drawn to participate in our innovative IKEducation programs. Our sustained growth and expansion will make it possible for the world, and a new generation, to learn more about Ike’s unparalleled accomplishments as Supreme Allied Commander during World War II and the 34th President of the United States.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
IKEducation
Launched in 2013, IKEducations mission is to provide K-12 students with an innovative educational experience that enhances their understanding of Dwight Eisenhower. It has taught more than 100,000 K-12 students and teachers about the Eisenhower Era onsite at the Presidential Library, in Kansas schools via IKE Express outreach, and online to schools across the globe.
During onsite field trips, students immerse themselves in critically-acclaimed museum exhibits that tell the inspiring story of Mr. & Mrs. Eisenhower in a way that is compelling to contemporary visitors of all ages.
IKE Express is an outreach program that takes select IKEducation curricula into the teachers very own classroom. Facilitated by our professional IKEducators, these programs use artifacts and documents from our extensive teaching collection.
The IKEducation Virtual Classroom is a website that offers online field trips, free access to more than 40 online lessons, and the Primary Source Library.
Scholar Lecture Series and Eisenhower Presidential Library Programs
The Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home hosts authors and researchers from all over the world to present at lectures in-person and virtually. These programs make current research accessible to broad national and international audiences. In addition, the Library hosts an annual WWII Emerging Scholars Symposium. In partnership with the Roosevelt and Truman Presidential Libraries, this symposium features scholars who are relatively new to the field during the virtual symposium held the first week of June. The symposium focuses on specialized topics related to the Allied effort in World War II.
Research Travel Grant Program
The Research Travel Grant Program encourages scholars to utilize the rich holdings of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas, to conduct research on topics that result in scholarly publication. Grants are awarded to individual researchers to cover a portion of travel expenses to Abilene to use the Library’s collections. Application process is competitive, and applications are accepted in the spring.
Ike's Soldiers (https://www.eisenhowerfoundation.net/ikes-soldiers)
Ike’s Soldiers pays tribute to General Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander of Europe during World War II. Recognizing the challenge of teaching technology-driven generations about the personal histories from World War II, we developed Ike's Soldiers. Through this program, we honor General Eisenhower’s legacy through the compelling stories of the soldiers he led and share them with the world through IKEducation programs and digital media platforms. We invite these special nonagenarians or older to tell their own stories about their experiences on video during this unique time in history. In addition, a new website feature empowers the families to honor the memories of World War II veterans who are no longer with us.
Symphony at Sunset D-Day Commemoration Concert (Annually in June)
On the first Saturday of June, we proudly host the annual Symphony at Sunset D-Day Commemoration Concert on the lawn of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas. We welcome thousands of families, neighbors, community partners, and of course, our veterans to this free concert featuring live performances from the Salina Symphony and the Fort Riley 1st Infantry Division Band. This popular event is free thanks to the generous support of grants through foundations, such as the Community Foundation of Dickinson County, and sponsorships from businesses, including Vyve Broadband, Kansas Gas Service, and Marshall Motors.
Temporary Exhibits
The newly renovated Eisenhower Presidential Museum features a 3,600 square feet special exhibits gallery. Temporary exhibitions including the upcoming Cold War: Soviets, Spies, and Secrets, opening March 23, 2024, are enjoyed by thousands of visitors.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Children, Students, Preteens
Related Program
IKEducation
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total number of classes offered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Children, Preteens, Students
Related Program
IKEducation
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of teachers participating in IKEducation programs/activities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Teachers
Related Program
IKEducation
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Eisenhower Foundation's mission is to honor and champion the relevance today of the life and leadership of Dwight D. Eisenhower through compelling programs and events that celebrate his legacy.
The Foundation was created 76 years ago in 1945 to memorialize General Eisenhower’s military leadership and subsequently to collect his presidential papers. Today, in partnership with the Eisenhower Presidential Library, the Foundation aims to connect the life and legacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower, emphasizing his leadership style and accomplishments, to issues today that are of vital importance to our nation and the world.
As the Eisenhower Foundation looks forward to this new decade and beyond, we will further our mission to champion the rich legacy of General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. His model for effective, bipartisan leadership is one that we all can learn from, even today.
Looking to the Future: The IKEducation Center
The expansion of IKEducation programs in a post-COVID-19 world will require more staff, and therefore, more office space to safely and effectively serve more IKEducation students in-person and remotely. Educators and parents are seeking remote learning resources, particularly STEAM-based materials, to facilitate learning that happens both from home and at school. IKEducation will need a dedicated space, especially with state-of-the-art digital technology, to meet the needs of educators and parents.
In addition to IKEducation’s needs, our current staff has fully outgrown our current office space of 1,000 square feet as it can no longer logistically or safely accommodate shared offices for six full-time and 10 part-time staff members in this current climate. Given current social distancing guidelines, it is important that we provide adequate office space so that staff can safely and comfortably work.
The Eisenhower Foundation anticipates building or renovating a space within the next five years that will meet both of these needs. Additionally, we understand that a new space will need to be uniquely designed to meet federal and state guidelines, particularly social distancing, in relation to coronavirus. Thanks to a very special donor, we have secured funding to explore our capital needs as we continue to strategically plan for our future and the next 75 years of the Eisenhower Foundation.
While we are only at the very beginning stages of this exciting project, we want our most loyal donors to be part of the journey from inception to completion.
Together, we are building a future with American citizens who still like Ike.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
As we look to the next five years, the Eisenhower Foundation Board and staff will launch a capital campaign to support the construction of a work environment that safely accommodates the expansion of our staff. We will implement an aggressive fundraising strategy to solicit donations from foundations, individuals, corporations, and government entities with an interest in our projects.
The Eisenhower Foundation will coordinate J.E. Dunn Construction, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to ensure the project is completed on time and within budget.
With funds raise from the campaign, the new IKEducation Center will serve multiple purposes:
- It will provide classrooms. Currently, we have one classroom located in the Museum. The building will provide four classrooms, each holding 25-30 students.
- It will provide public discovery space for an interactive visitor experience that will highlight dynamic and evolving content.
- It will provide a technology and production hub dedicated to livestreaming IKEducation programs into classrooms across the United States.
- It will provide appropriate space for staff, which now numbers six full-time and 10 part-time. We have outgrown our current office space of 1,000 square feet in the Library, especially with current social distancing guidelines.
- It will provide support areas, like a kitchen, multi-purpose room, restrooms, storage space, etc.
The Eisenhower Foundation will provide and promote special opportunities for general visitors to participate in IKEducation programs, as well as special programs at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and in other communities including Kansas City, during renovations.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The history of our fundraising begins in 1945. However, within the last 10 years, we have significantly increased fundraising activities to include a national direct mail marketing campaign that has grown the Foundation's donor base more than 4,000% in the last five years and includes donors from all 50 states. We also have more than 650 Kansans who are Friends of the Eisenhower Foundation, our annual membership program that provides free admission to the Presidential Campus.
In 2019, we successfully completed the Dwight D. Eisenhower: A Legacy of Leadership Campaign, which raised $12.25 million. It was integrated campaign that included capital and program goals. The overall goal included costs for the exhibit renovations, plus five years of funding for IKEducation. Lead gifts were received from the DeBruce Foundation, the Hall Family Foundation, the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, the Walter S. and Evan C. Jones Testamentary Trust, the William T. Kemper Foundation, and the Sunderland Foundation.
In fact, the very possibility of this campaign is a result of a modest request for funds to renovate the “Introductory Gallery” proposed in 2013 to the Hall Family Foundation, based in Kansas City, Missouri. After touring the Museum, the foundation’s representatives strongly encouraged the Eisenhower Foundation to update all galleries simultaneously. Thus, the Dwight D. Eisenhower: Legacy of Leadership Campaign was born.
This transformational growth has advanced us from a local organization to a national movement. In addition, IKEducation, the Foundation's K-12 program that offers more than 40 unique field trip enhancement programs, was established in 2013 through major grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
At the 1957 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Meeting of Heads of Government, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Accomplishment will prove to be a journey not a destination.”
As we reflect on the journey of 2020 through 2021, we are truly humbled by our many accomplishments, all of which were made entirely possible by your unwavering commitment to the Eisenhower Foundation’s mission. 2020 was a year that was anything but normal, and while many nonprofits struggled, your gifts helped us not only meet our budget needs, but continue to create meaningful impact.
Like everyone, the way in which we implemented our organization’s mission completely changed in March of 2020. We were forced to cancel all of our public programs and school field trips and completely pivot to virtual education. We were forced to cancel all of our face-to-face meetings with donors and pivot to communicating exclusively through mail, email and telephone conversations. In spite of this, we accomplished great things in the year 2020, and continue to do so in 2021. We are excited to finish this year strong and look toward a future multi-year capital campaign to sustain our organization for another 75 years.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, It is difficult to get honest feedback from the people we serve
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Eisenhower Foundation
Board of directorsas of 02/27/2024
Mr. Stephen Hauge
Businessman
Term: 2024 - 2026
Mr. Kyle Campbell
Astra Bank
Term: 2024 - 2026
Mary Jean Eisenhower
People to People International (retired)
Tim Holm
Holm Automotive Center
Kevin Rooney
Bank of America
Nicolas Platt
Hartley Dodge Foundation
David Eisenhower
Chairman Emeritus, Author and Scholar
John R. Elmore
US Bancorp (retired)
Jason Thomas
Bank of America
Clark Judge
White House Writers Group, Inc.
Thomas Sanchez
Social Driver
Darcy Frick Stewart
JE Dunn Construction
Michael L. Dodson
Kansas Representative, 67th District
Charles R. Ewald
New Island Capital
Susan Peterson
Kansas State University (retired)
Kasey Pipes
Corley Pipes Consulting
Nicholas Rostow
Zumpano, Patricios & Popok
Jock Scharfen
Cargill (retired)
Jason Thomas
Social Driver
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes