FOUNDATION NEWS By Michelle Fevola With Support from Donors, Record-Breaking Year Gives Way to Innovative Research N THE HEELS of our year-long 25th anniversary celebration, the Foundation springs into 2015 with new ideas and innovative research. Throughout the past year, we asked our donors and those who frequently download our reports how we can better deliver future-focused resources. We heard you, and we are incorporating your input into our planning. With your feedback, our Research Committee is de-veloping RFPs for more segmented and diverse market research, data-driven reports and action-oriented studies to help you see around corners so your businesses and our industry can thrive. O Several projects are already in motion and are slated to be released early this year, includ-ing studies on alter-native financing and electronic documents, as well as the Winter 2015 edition of the Journal of Equipment Lease Financing . In addition to anticipated new research and resources, the Founda-tion’s 2015 annual Equipment Leas-ing & Finance U.S. Economic Out-look is now available for download. This popular report will be updated quarterly throughout the year. The current edition of the Foundation-Keybridge Monthly Mo-mentum Monitor is also available online at www.leasefoundation.org . CORPORATE BENEFACTOR ($10,000+) Banc of America Leasing Bank of the West Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation CHP Consulting Dell Financial Services Element Financial Corporation EverBank Commercial Finance, Inc. Farm Credit Leasing Services Corporation Fifth Third Equipment Finance Company Financial Pacific Leasing, Inc. First American Equipment Finance, a City National Bank Company Genpact, LLC Hitachi Capital America Corp. Huntington Equipment Finance International Decision Systems John Deere Financial Key Equipment Finance Odessa Technologies, Inc. PNC Equipment Finance, LLC Siemens Financial Services, Inc. U.S. Bank Equipment Finance CORPORATE SUSTAINER ($5,000+) AIG Commercial Asset Finance The Alta Group Banc of California BB&T Equipment Finance BMO Harris Equipment Finance Company Bridge Capital Leasing Inc. BTMU Capital Leasing and Finance, Inc. Citizens Asset Finance Thank You to Our 2014 Donors The Foundation’s successes would not be possible without the many contributions from our corporate and individual donors, which totaled over $616,000 in 2014—the highest in Foundation history. To all of our 2014 contributors: Thank you for a mo-mentous year and for shaping a promising future! We look forward to the continued support of these generous individuals and companies this year. CORPORATE AMBASSADOR ($50,000+) GE Capital CORPORATE FELLOW ($20,000+) CIT DLL Wells Fargo Equipment Finance 56 Scott Thacker, Research Committee Co-Chair, helps to plan the Foundation’s research agenda for 2015 and beyond. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE