Change is a constant at Franklin College.
Fresh classes of students come to the school with diverse needs and evolving priorities. Campus leaders and faculty bring new approaches to learning. New buildings, course offerings and programs shift year after year.
With a new $2 million gift, the college will have the flexibility to meet the needs of the campus as it changes and grows, Franklin College President Thomas J. Minar said.
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“It is an opportunity for the college throughout our future,” Minar said. The gift will provide funds for innovative purposes and opportunities that will emerge, he said.
“It’s for the future. It’s forward-thinking, and it’s thinking about opportunity, at any give moment.”
Franklin College announced on Thursday a “super endowment” gift from Douglas L. Tillman, a 1970 graduate of the college and a member of its board of trustees. The income from that single endowment will solely go towards creating separate new endowments at the college to help pay for everything from innovative classroom equipment to opportunities for student research and travel to faculty development.
With this gift, the college will have access to funding and the future of the college has been secured by assuring that endowments at the college are continually growing, Minar said.
“It will create funds, and then we’ll determine what we want to use those funds for in a future endowment. That’s part of how not only is it innovative, but it’s inspiring,” Minar said. “We didn’t sit and think about how these funds would be used in 20 years. We thought about how do we give the future here inspiration and opportunity to be thinking about the future.”
For Tillman, the gift is a chance to support the vision of progress for the school put forth by Franklin College leaders.
“I believe that an innovative and malleable liberal arts and sciences curriculum, as historically provided by Franklin College, continues to be an asset in addressing current and future issues in a civilized world,” he said in a news release from the college on Thursday. “Accordingly, my goal was to make a transformative, significant and lasting gift to better position the college to respond to and support current and future proposals and projects that are innovative and timely when societal changes occur.”
Tillman graduated from Franklin College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and economics. After earning a law degree from Indiana University, he worked for 33 years at Eli Lilly, including holding executive positions in the corporate personnel and general counsel departments.
He has served on the Franklin College board of trustees for 27 years. In 1996, he was awarded the Alumni Citation for Lifetime Achievement from the school for his civic engagement and leadership with several central Indiana arts and cultural organizations.
Currently, Tillman provides leadership and financial support to organizations such as the Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis Art Center, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Tillman had met with the Minar and other trustee leaders about what the college’s needs were currently and in the future. The super endowment idea was one that Minar had worked with previously as an administrator, and he thought it would be a useful way to use the gift.
Tillman structured his gift specifically so that it would provide that bedrock while also allowing the college to meet needs currently and in coming years.
The gift will be used to establish its own endowment. The income that is generated by that endowment over time will then go towards additional endowments that can support specific classroom additions, campus programs or other needs.
The use of these future endowments will come at the recommendation from the college president or trustees, and approval must be made by the executive committee of the board of trustees.
“It provides an exponential growth for the endowment, by providing more endowments. That provides us with longer term financial strength that many people can’t even imagine,” Minar said.
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Franklin College $2 million gift
Who donated it: Doug L. Tillman, a 1970 alumni of Franklin College who spent 33 years working at Eli Lilly
What: The gift will be part of a “super endowment,” with the income that it generates will be solely used to fund additional endowments at the college in the future.
How funds will be spent: The use of these future endowments will come at the recommendation of the president or trustees. Spending it must be approved by the executive committee of the board of trustees.
What will the endowments help fund: Use of the funds is flexible, but could be used for state-of-the-art classroom equipment; financial aid optimization funds; student opportunity funds for research, travel or emergency needs; faculty development opportunities, and high-profile lectures.
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