Back to Index     

Philanthropist Frank Batten doesn't know exactly what triggered his initial focus on education. But for decades the Virginia Beach executive has "concentrated on education as an area where I thought I could make an impact. It is the most important way to help people become self-sufficient and improve their lives and opportunities."

Batten recalls being a “lazy 14-year-old kid” whose life was changed by Culver Military Academy. The Indiana school “had more impact on me than anything else. It motivated me to be a decent student and to be a leader,” Batten says. He speaks fondly of his eight years as Old Dominion University’s first rector and his time serving on the Virginia Council of Higher Education. Those volunteer positions showed him the power education has to change many lives. Batten is proud of the more than 24,000 area residents who have attended college with help from the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation's ACCESS program he helped found 15 years ago.

Batten honed in on education as a personal mission in several ways. "First I gave my time and efforts. Then, when I was able, I've tried to make a difference with my resources," he says.

This spring the retired chairman Landmark Communications Inc. and his wife Jane laid the groundwork for making major differences in the lives of southeastern Virginia's youths. Their gift of $20.5 million to The Norfolk Foundation established the Batten Educational Achievement Fund. During the next 15 years the donor advised fund will help area young people develop the knowledge and skills needed to become productive, self-sufficient citizens. The Batten gift is the largest single gift the Foundation has received in its 53-year history.

The March gift to the Foundation was among nine donations of more than $170 million the Battens made simultaneously to educational organizations. Their generosity garnered national attention in the world of philanthropy. Recipients included Old Dominion University, Virginia Wesleyan College, the Tidewater Scholarship Foundation, the College of William and Mary, Norfolk Academy, Culver Military Academy, Harvard University and Hollins University.

"I had the gifts in my will but decided to give them now while I could enjoy seeing the results," Batten says. "I gave to organizations I thought were doing a good job and could handle the funds successfully."

Batten selected The Norfolk Foundation to manage the new educational achievement fund because "this is to be a long-lasting program. I wanted an organization that would be there and have the resources to do research on different organizations. The Foundation was a logical place because the kinds of things the fund will support are eclectic. I wanted to give the fund to an organization with a broad range of interest."

A donor advised fund was another logical choice for the Battens since "we want-ed to be involved and see that the fund got started in the right direction. We wanted to have our own input into what it does." The Battens and their son Frank, chairman of Landmark Communications, are advisors for the fund.

The Foundation is working with the Battens to find the best ways to use the new fund to improve opportunities for area youth. It has convened two advisory committees of education and youth experts. One group focuses on early childhood education while the other explores kindergarten through 12th grade and youth development needs. With the committees' help, the Foundation will identify several critical needs to guide grantmaking.

"The Battens' gift is transformational," says Joshua P. Darden Jr., chairman of The Norfolk Foundation's board of directors. "It is beyond anything ever done in this community for young people."

As the Batten Educational Achievement Fund starts to make an impact on young lives, Batten hopes it will have a spin-off effect by "stimulating others to do similar things for their community."

Back to Fall 2003 Newsletter Index