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Lowell Observatory
Communications Office
1400 W. Mars Hill Rd.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
www.lowell.edu
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 13, 2015
***Contact details appear below***
LOWELL OBSERVATORY ESTABLISHES NEW FOUNDATION AND HIRES HEAD
OF DEVELOPMENT
Flagstaff, Az – Lowell Observatory has established the Lowell Observatory Foundation, an
independently managed, 501 (c) (3) organization that will allow the Observatory to expand its
philanthropic base. In a related move to bolster Lowell’s fundraising program, Lisa Actor was
recruited to serve as Deputy Director for Development, in charge of overseeing charitable giving.
The principal purpose of the foundation will be to receive permanently endowed funds for the
sole purpose of supporting the mission of the Observatory. It may also receive funds restricted
for specific projects, such as the development of astronomical instruments.
Observatory Sole Trustee W. Lowell Putnam said, “The Lowell Observatory Foundation is a
way to create more engagement opportunities, and it gives us a vehicle to more efficiently and
effectively manage people’s permanently endowed donations to the Observatory. By pooling
their gifts, we can reduce the management costs and overhead and hopefully increase the yield,
thereby allowing those gifts to do more than if we managed them separately.”
A board of seven trustees will initially govern the foundation and will consist of the
Observatory’s current sole trustee and a mix of current Lowell advisory board members and
other individuals not currently affiliated with the Observatory. Lowell Director Jeffrey Hall said,
“Our goal was to create a substantial support entity for the organization that is not governed only
by the sole trustee. This independent governance is important when pursuing larger gifts to the
Observatory.” The foundation’s initial seven trustees will be formally elected at the
Observatory’s annual board meeting in June.
While this new board will manage the foundation, it will work closely with Lisa Actor, who for
the past 18 years had helped lead the development team at Westminster College in Salt Lake
City.
Actor earned a B.S. in biology from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and
worked for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for five years, serving
as deck officer/ survey party chief on a ship charting the waters of Alaska and Hawaii.
She succeeded in several roles at Westminster, including Director of Foundation and
Government Relations, Director of Gift Planning, Development Director, and Associate Vice
President for Institutional Advancement.
At Lowell, Actor will oversee charitable giving to the Observatory. This includes major
foundation and corporate gifts, estate gifts, the Friends of Lowell membership program, and
capital campaigns for the Lowell Observatory Foundation.
Hall said, “Lisa has very long and broad experience in fundraising. She has supported
fundraising for science and has worked in scientific capacities herself. She is a perfect match for
the position.”
Lowell Observatory Foundation Contact
Lisa Actor
Deputy Director for Development
Lowell Observatory
(928) 255-5047
lactor@lowell.edu
Media Contact
Josh Bangle
Communications & Marketing Associate
Lowell Observatory
(928) 607-1974
jbangle@lowell.edu
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About Lowell Observatory
Lowell Observatory is an independent, non-profit research institution founded in 1894 by
Percival Lowell. The Observatory has been the site of many important discoveries including the
detection of the large recessional velocities (redshift) of galaxies by Vesto Slipher in 1912-1914
(a result that led ultimately to the realization the universe is expanding), and the discovery of
Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. Today, Lowell's 14 astronomers use ground-based telescopes
around the world, telescopes in space, and NASA planetary spacecraft to conduct research in
diverse areas of astronomy and planetary science. The Observatory welcomes 80,000 visitors
each year to its Mars Hill campus in Flagstaff, Arizona for a variety of tours, telescope viewing,
and special programs. Lowell Observatory currently operates four research telescopes at its
Anderson Mesa dark sky site east of Flagstaff and the 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope
near Happy Jack, Arizona.