Eleanor Ackley signs the paperwork to pledge the largest gift in Franklin College history, as President Kerry Prather looks on.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
A Franklin College graduate has pledged a $3.9 million estate gift, the richest in the college’s history.
The money comes in the form of an estate gift from 1971 graduate Eleanor Ackley, who is the president and owner of Florida Sunshine Vacation Rentals. Ackley and her late husband, Richard, started the company in 2004, according to a Franklin College news release.
Ackley has donated to Franklin College in the past, but this is her largest gift yet. In 2018, she along with another donor, provided funding to expand the college’s marketing efforts in the Indianapolis area. She and her husband have also supported the college’s Franklin Fund, Campaign for the Sciences and the softball complex, according to the release.
Not just for Ackley, personally, the gift is the largest anyone has ever donated to the college, said Franklin College President Kerry Prather.
Ackley said her gift, which will be delivered posthumously, was inspired by how rich her college experience was and the connections she’s made to this day.
“Franklin College gave me a lifetime of skills and lifelong friends that made my college experience memorable,” she said in the release. “Those friends, classmates and Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sisters have greatly enriched my life to this day. I wish all of them and the college continued success and happiness.”
The gift is unrestricted, meaning college officials can make the decision on how to spend the money. The college hasn’t made any final decision on how to use the money, but there are numerous ways it will help the school, including with scholarship funds, Prather said.
“As she said to her classmates at their 50th reunion at homecoming, as she’s gotten older, she has reflected more and more on the Franklin College experience and the impact of that experience on her life. This is her way of giving back to the institution for all the things it made possible for her,” Prather said. “The effects will be significant when the time comes. She has talked about this plan for quite a while and we had no real sense of the amount, so that part of her announcement was a bit of a surprise, a very pleasant surprise.”
The donation comes on the heels of the most successful #GivetoGRIZ event last week, a single day of donations brought in a record breaking amount for the campaign, nearly $300,000.
“We’re in the midst of a phenomenal year in terms of fundraising, a historic year, and I think it speaks to the confidence and faith of many different constituencies in the direction and future of the college,” Prather said. “It’s enormously affirming to all of us on campus. Fundraising is critical to our mission, and to be experiencing this kind of a successful year is really invigorating to everyone on campus.”
