Thinking about ATJ’s Future

The past year has been an unusually busy—and fruitful—one for ATJ as we have worked to create new ties with the global Japanese language teaching community while strengthening existing ties among the differing levels, fields, and geographic sectors of our own Japanese language teaching community here in the U.S.

The challenge that lies before us as the year draws to a close is how to sustain the momentum that has been created up to this point as we move into the future. A critical factor in our ability to do so, and one that will require more careful planning than we have given it in the past, is our financial well-being.

Many of you may not be aware that our core operating budget, from which staff salaries are paid, is currently supported entirely by grants from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission that must be renewed at intervals as short as every year. Other income we receive, such as that from memberships and advertising revenue, makes up only a fraction of ATJ’s budget and goes toward non-salary items such as newsletter and journal publication, the cost of holding seminars, etc.

The debt we owe to JUSFC is therefore great, but we cannot assume that this source of support will continue indefinitely. After 40 years in existence, ATJ is at a juncture where financial independence is a goal that we on the inside need to think about seriously before it is thrust on us from the outside.

What would it take to make ATJ financially independent? The most secure way to do so would be the creation of a capital endowment that could generate the approximately $100,000 a year necessary to support our core budget. Assuming a return of 5% a year, that would require a capital endowment of $2 million, and to build in protection against an annual rate of 3%, one of just over $3.2 million.

Is creating such an endowment a feasible goal for us? It’s obviously not one that can be achieved overnight, nor one that can be achieved just with the resources that currently exist within our own organization. Still, if we work toward it together with patience, inventiveness, and a belief in the importance of our cause, I believe that such a goal is quite attainable. Those of us in leadership roles in the organization will over the next few months be exploring ways of identifying potentially major sources of support toward this goal. In the meantime, let me suggest some concrete ways that contributions toward this goal might be made by individual members.

First, if you are in a position to do so, I would urge you to consider becoming a lifetime member of ATJ. Depending on where you are in your career, you may in fact find that the $1,000 lifetime membership will result in some significant savings for you over paying membership fees year by year. More importantly, though, lifetime memberships are invested by ATJ in a capital account of which the principal is not touched, so your lifetime membership becomes a gift that will support ATJ indefinitely into the future.

A second way of contributing in a major way as an individual is to remember ATJ in your will. Gifts that are made to ATJ in that way will again be put toward a capital account from which only the annual income, but not principal, will be applied to annual operating costs.

The third way in which every member can contribute toward this goal is simply to raise awareness of the mission and goals of ATJ by talking about them at every opportunity, not only with colleagues in the Japanese language teaching community, but with those in the larger community of business, education, government, and the arts who have an interest in fostering long-term understanding and good relations between our country and Japan.

Thank you for taking these few moments to think with me about the future of our organization. We will be in touch with you as we continue to think of ways we can put ATJ on a sound financial footing. For your part, don’t hesitate to contact the ATJ office or me personally if you have any thoughts about how we can best go about pursuing this goal together.

Wishing you all a time of rest and relaxation in the upcoming holidays and also the best in the New Year.