This year I turned 65. I have been an IEEE member for 42 years, so I met the criteria for becoming a life member of the IEEE (age after 65 + years as a member >100). As a consequence, my 2021 IEEE dues were a lot less than in prior years. That helped a bit financially this year since business has been down for me, mostly because of the Covid-19 travel and meeting restrictions. But I wanted to support IEEE and in particular IEEE-USA and its mission of government advocacy and career and member services for IEEE members in the United States.
So, I made a tax deductible donation to the IEEE-USA Fund in an amount equal to what I would have previously paid as my annual IEEE-USA Assessment ($47). The IEEE-USA Fund is one of three funds managed for IEEE-USA by the IEEE Foundation and is used to support the broad range of IEEE-USA programs and services designed to enhance member careers and the engineering profession. The IEEE Foundation also accepts restricted donations in support of the IEEE-USA Awards Program and the IEEE-USA MOVE Community Outreach. Here is what the IEEE-USA donation page looks like. You can select which of the three funds to donate to by scrolling down the “designation” choice bar.
The IEEE-USA Fund (the general fund) supports special projects conducted by IEEE-USA to enhance the careers of U.S. IEEE members, improve K-12 science, technology, engineering and math education, and promote public awareness of the profession. Examples of how donated funds have been used include:
- Celebrating the engineering profession and its contributions to society through support for National Engineers Week programs and activities like the Future City Competition and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
- Special opportunities to place IEEE Members in Fellowships as Technology Advisors at Key Government Agencies
- Supporting K-12 STEM Literacy Programs and outreach
- Supporting the development of member products and services like the IEEE-USA Salary Service and online Consultants Directory
The IEEE-USA Awards Fund supports the annual IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition, which recognize professional leadership, public service, technical achievement and literary/journalistic contributions to the advancement of engineering. IEEE-USA also welcomes inquiries related to targeted funding support for specific IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition.
The IEEE-USA MOVE Community Outreach Fund helps support the MOVE Community Outreach project, and in particular the MOVE emergency deployments and K-12 STEM public outreach, including the costs of operating and maintaining the MOVE vehicle and upgrading its capabilities.
So if you are a life member, or even if you aren’t, consider donating to support IEEE and IEEE-USA activities. IEEE members do make a difference!
You can find out more about the IEEE-USA Fund at https://ieeeusa.org/giving-opportunities/
Tom Coughlin is president of Coughlin Associates, and served as 2019 IEEE-USA President. He is a widely respected digital storage analyst and business/technology consultant with more than 35 years in the data storage industry. Dr. Coughlin has many publications and six patents to his credit. He is the author of Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide, and he publishes the Digital Storage Technology Newsletter, the Media and Entertainment Storage Report and other industry reports. Tom is also a regular contributor on digital storage for Forbes.com and other blogs.
