Announcing The Launch of the International Nautical Archaeology Foundation (INAF)

By Alexander Denny

As a Trustee of the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) for the past eight years, my focus has frequently been on practical, ground-level survival: keeping our research vessel seaworthy, securing project-specific grants, and coordinating local volunteer divers.

But this month, we had the privilege of taking a massive, structural leap forward.

Following months of careful governance design and legal structuring, we have formally established the International Nautical Archaeology Foundation (INAF). This new, independent grant-giving foundation has been seeded by a generous, transformative bequest of over  $1million from the late Edward & Saryl Von der Porten Trust.

As the newly appointed Chair of the Investment and Governance Committee for INAF, this milestone represents a profound moment of reflection on how boards successfully transition generous legacy gifts into permanent, self-sustaining engines of real-world impact.

INAF supports maritime and nautical archaeology in the sea, on the foreshore and in coastal regions

Moving from Legacy to Perpetuity

When a charity receives a major, unexpected bequest, the psychological temptation for a board is often to treat it as "windfall capital"—using it to plug immediate, short-term funding gaps or expand existing operations rapidly.

While understandable, this approach often leads to a "cliff-edge" scenario where the capital is exhausted within a few years, leaving the charity structurally vulnerable.

To honor the Von der Porten family's incredible legacy, our board took a different path. We recognized that a permanent gift requires a permanent structure.

By formally establishing INAF as an independent foundation, we have built a robust legal and financial firewall. Our objective is to manage this initial $1million endowment with absolute financial discipline, ensuring the principal capital is preserved and grown across market cycles, while the investment yield is used to fund ongoing global grants.

The Governance Pillars of INAF

Setting up a global grant-making framework from scratch requires translating high-level philanthropic intent into concrete, transparent policies:

1. A Rigorous Investment Mandate: Designing a multi-asset investment portfolio that balances capital growth with steady income generation, ensuring our annual grant capacity remains predictable.

2. Transparent, Blind Grant Selection: Creating a highly structured, peer-reviewed evaluation framework to ensure that research funding is awarded purely on scientific merit, archaeological significance, and educational value.

3. Cross-Border Compliance: Navigating the complex legal and tax frameworks of managing US-originated trust capital within a UK-charitable structure, ensuring complete regulatory alignment.

Honoring the Past, Securing the Future

Edward and Saryl Von der Porten dedicated their lives to uncovering the hidden histories resting beneath our waves—particularly the trade networks of Drake's California landings and early global maritime commerce.

With the formal launch of INAF, we have ensured that their passion does not end with their passing. By applying the same rigorous financial oversight and risk management that I bring to institutional pension funds, we have built a vehicle that will support, educate, and fund the world's most promising nautical archaeologists for decades to come.

Understanding what lies beneath the surface is the first step to protecting it. I am incredibly proud to help guide this new chapter of global maritime stewardship.

Keywords: Nautical Archaeology Society, INAF, Heritage Preservation, Legacy Bequests, Endowment Management, Charitable Governance