KU ENDOWMENT MEMO
(SPRING 2021) - For this assignment, I researched a local business. Then I wrote a memo describing the business, its owners and articulated three research-based arguments to convince the owners to donate to KU Endowment.
I kept a detailed diary of the research I performed. This diary contained the search terms I used, including the various search term operators I performed. The dairy also included the results from each search I performed and the notes I took from the results I chose to explore.
In the memo, I used the information I found from my research to describe the local business and its owners. I then used the information gathered from my research to articulate three arguments KU Endowment staff could use to convince the business owners to become KU Endowment donors.
THE MEMO
TO: Michelle Keller
FROM: Anna Wiksten
DATE: March 1, 2021
SUBJECT: Liberty Hall as a potential donor
As part of our efforts to cultivate local business owners as KU Endowment donors, here is a summary of Liberty Hall and its owner.
The Business
Liberty Hall is a theater located at 664 Massachusetts St. in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. According to its website, it is comprised of a concert hall, video store, coffee house, and independent cinema.
According to Liberty Hall…
Liberty Hall is a concert hall that hosts a variety of live acts.
Liberty Hall Video is a DVD rental store.
La Prima Tazza is a European-style coffee house.
Liberty Hall Cinema shows independent, foreign, and art-house films.
According to Liberty Hall’s website, the building was purchased by Charles Oldfather, Susan Millstein, and Dave Millstein in 1986. The building was renovated and re-opened as it is now. According to the Lawrence Business magazine, the first event held at Liberty Hall after its re-opening was a meeting for the Brazilian Club from the University of Kansas.
The Owner
According to Lawrence Business Magazine, Susan Millstein currently owns Liberty Hall. According to the Lawrence Journal-World, the previous owners, Charles Oldfather, died in 1996, and her husband, Dave Millstein, died in 2020. According to the Lawrence Journal-World, Mr. Millstein was better known for designing and fixing things while Mrs. Millstein focused more on the business side.
According to the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, Mrs. Millstein, her late husband, and others are responsible for saving many of the buildings on Massachusetts St. from being turned into a covered mall.
Mrs. Milstein is committed to environmental sustainability. According to Mother Earth Living, she and her husband built an environmentally friendly house a few miles outside Lawrence. One of the recycled materials they used for their home is from a University of Kansas handball court. They also asked a University of Kansas professor in engineering to help prove their home’s structural integrity.
According to Mother Earth Living, they had a daughter who attended The University of Kansas.
Fundraising Arguments
Susan Millstein should donate to the University of Kansas’s School of Business to help future business leaders. According to Lawrence Business Magazine, Mrs. Millstein and her late husband have owned numerous businesses, including the four that comprise Liberty Hall.
With the help of KU Endowment, Susan Millstein could create a scholarship in honor of her late husband. According to the Lawrence Journal-World, Mr. Millstein was better known for designing and fixing things. According to Lawrence Business magazine, when Mr. Millstein was renovating Liberty Hall, he asked friends to paint the murals that are still in Liberty Hall today. The scholarship would be specific to the department of visual arts.
Susan Millstein should donate to the department of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering at the University of Kansas’s School of Engineering. According to Mother Earth Living, she and her late husband spent two years construing their environmentally sustainable home. According to Mother Earth Living, they also asked a professor at the University’s school of engineering to help prove the home’s structural integrity. This donation would help future engineers who are interested in environmental engineering.
