SARASOTA - How would you like to receive an unexpected gift worth $3 million? That's exactly what happened to New College of Florida. The school announced Wednesday that it has received a $3 million gift from a private donor, and now it's time for the fun part: figuring out how to spend it.
This is estimated to be the 2nd-largest gift New College has ever received. And at a time when state funding is in question and budget cuts seem inevitable, New College's president says a gift like this can help sustain the school's future.
“It's about 3.5 million dollars total, and since so much of it is in land, property, we'll go forward in determining the best way to use that part of the gift. And there's a substantial, almost seven figure amount, in liquid form,” says school president Dr. Mike Michalson.
The gift comes from the estate of Heidi Boothe, an early Tallevast pioneer who passed away at age 90 in October. The donation was made by Heidi in honor of her daughter Sharon Rider, who died unexpectedly in 2004.
Dr. Michalson says the school has only received one other gift worth more: a $3.752 million gift from the Jane Bancroft Cook Estate in 2003.
Dr. Michalson says private donations are used to build the school's endowment fund, which requires that the principal be maintained intact and invested to create a source of income for New College. “We're in the early stages of a capital campaign for the foundation, and one of our major goals is to build our unrestricted endowment so we have a little more flexibility with cash flow coming down from year to year.”
And even though New College is facing some potentially tough cuts in state funding, Dr. Michalson says Heidi Boothe's estate will not be used for the school's operational budget. But the school will be sure it's used wisely for Heidi. “It's a gift of an elderly mother who lost her child, and you should never out-live your children; and at the moment she lost her child, who attended New College, it occurred to Heidi to want to do her own estate planning in a way that honored the college her daughter attended and loved.”
Over the last year and half, New College has raised more than $20 million in outright and planned gifts as part of its $60 million New College promise campaign, and the plan is to double that.
