With little to show but enthusiasm, the development staff at the National Constitution Center managed to fund a dream.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

That done, Specter turned to the organizations that her audience would belong to, and she started writing letters. She also realized that she already knew many of the people she was targeting.

But even with a high personal profile and years worth of connections, Specter didn’t find it easy.

“People then — and even now, here in Philadelphia — didn’t really understand what the Constitution Center does and what it means to America,” she says. “Most people think of it as an abstraction. And once you understand that people think of it as an abstraction, you can understand how difficult it is to raise money for it.”