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Dear Vonnegutians,

As we temporarily close our doors, let’s take a moment to recap our year to date. Since January 1, 2020, 646 of you welcomed us into your schools, prisons, community clubs, libraries, etc.  Nearly 400,000 of you visited us here at our website! Another 1,213 of you stopped by in January and February when we were offering 6 tours a day! We shared suicide prevention training with more than 50 of you, and you keep asking for more. Arthur Murray Dance Studio taught 20 guests new dance steps at our first-ever Valentine’s Day Party. We hosted author Dave Eggers as we start our Youth Writing Program, and 210 of you had the opportunity to meet him. We’ve had an amazing year so far, and we are not stopping now. We are moving full-steam ahead, creating online content for you and planning our first Kentucky Derby Party and Fourth of July events, Freedom to Read Week, VonnegutFest, and more. What’s more, a donor from Danville, Indiana, is donating $500 if it is matched by the end of the day Friday, March 20th. His name is Tom, and you’ll learn more about him in our next newsletter. Would you consider donating any amount to help us reach our total goal of $500 by Friday at 5 pm? Donate here!

We exist to celebrate the legacy of Kurt Vonnegut and support free expression and common decency. Hand washing is common decency. Of course, Kurt had something to say about hand washing (he was so brilliant):

 “My hero is Ignaz Semmelweis . . . But all that dying went on and on and Semmelweis, having far less sense about how to get along with others in this world than you and I would have, kept on asking his colleagues to wash their hands. They at last agreed to do this in a spirit of lampoonery, of satire, of scorn. How they must have lathered and lathered and scrubbed and scrubbed and cleaned under their fingernails. The dying stopped – imagine that! The dying stopped. He saved all those lives.”  Read more here.

Although our building is closed, our organization is still open for business. So stay in touch with us, Vonnegutians, through our social media channels, email, and phone, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed of all things Vonnegut. So it goes!

Kathi Badertscher, PhD

Director of Graduate Programs at the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
Kathi Badertscher, PhD, is Director of Graduate Programs at the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Dr. Badertscher teaches a variety of BA, MA, and doctoral courses, including Applying Ethics in Philanthropy and History of Philanthropy. She has participated in several Teaching Vonnegut workshops and is a member of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. Dr. Badertscher has been a guest speaker on ethics in philanthropy, including at the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners – Indianapolis Council; Association of Fundraising Professionals – Indiana Chapter; and Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University, Tianjin, China. In 2019 she received IUPUI Office for Women, Women’s Leadership Award for Newcomer Faculty. In 2019 and 2020 she received the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Graduate Teaching Award.
Dr. Badertscher’s publications include “Fundraising for Advocacy and Social Change,” co-authored with Shariq Siddiqui in Achieving Excellence in Fundraising, 5th ed., 2022; “Insulin at 100: Indianapolis, Toronto, Woods Hole, and the ‘Insulin Road,’ co-authored with Christopher Rutty, Pharmacy in History (2020); and three articles in the Indiana Magazine of History: “A New Wishard Is on the Way,” “Evaline Holliday and the Work of Community Service,” and “Social Networks in Indianapolis during the Progressive Era.” Her chapters on social welfare history will appear in three upcoming edited volumes on the history of philanthropy, including “The Legacy of Edna Henry and Her Contributions to the IU School of Social Work,” Women at Indiana University: Views of the Past and the Future, edited by Andrea Walton, Indiana University Press, 2022 (forthcoming). Dr. Badertscher is also the Philanthropy and Nonprofits Consulting Editor for the forthcoming Digital Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, edited by David J. Bodenhamer and Elizabeth Van Allen, Indiana University Press, 2021. Dr. Badertscher is an active volunteer in the Indianapolis community. At present, she is a Coburn Place Safe Haven Board Member and a Children’s Bureau/Families First Brand and Marketing Advisor. Dr. Badertscher holds the MA in History from Indiana University and the MA and PhD in philanthropic studies from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

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