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

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Because the staff, and the center itself, is so brand-spanking new, there also were mistakes to be made. OK, not mistakes, but maybe just enthusiastic misjudgments. In particular, the staff cast too wide a net when it first began trying to attract donors through DM, spreading its reach across the country and getting not-so-fabulous results.