Ken Olson Donates his Papers Alongside Estate Gift to Fund their Curation

Ken-Olsen-portrait-photo-by-Judith-Hiester-July-2013

Conservationist and author Ken Olson has donated his professional papers to Fogler Library at the University of Maine, complementing materials the state’s largest library holds relating to the environment, resource conservation and policy in Maine and elsewhere. He has donated an estate gift to the University of Maine Foundation to fund the curation of his papers.

To read more about Ken Olson and his collection, the full story is on the UMaine News Page.

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UMaine Professor created Student Essentials Fund

Professor Pankaj “Pank” Agrrawal, Ph.D. has proven his deep care and commitment to the success of UMaine students. Pank created the Student Essentials Fund here at the Foundation in 2019 and continues to contribute to its value as a way to support students with expenses associated with their degree progress. Because of his generosity, business students can now receive assistance purchasing course materials such as books and calculators, exam fees, and even transportation, housing, food, and winter clothing.

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None of the information on this website should be considered legal or financial advice. We encourage you to consult with your own legal counsel or financial/tax advisor before deciding whether or not to proceed with a gift or change to your estate plan.

Foundation Funded SPIFFY Finding Success in Competition

For Ethan Howe, investing is about more than the money: it’s about the challenge, the thrill of taking risks, and the community that he has built around it. Aside from his involvement with student investment funds on campus, he has used his knowledge of the market to lead a UMaine team in a global competition, where they ranked in the top 5% worldwide.

Howe, currently a senior majoring in finance, transferred to UMaine from the University of Hartford after his freshman year. One of the elements of UMaine that convinced him to transfer was the active Student Portfolio Investment Fund, known by its members as “SPIFFY,” which manages about $3.9 million in stocks, bonds, and international funds of the UMaine Endowment. Howe leads a team of three student analysts in the financial sector.

“We make all the executive decisions by a voting basis which is really exciting because it puts the power in the students’ hands,” Howe says. “We feel like we’re managing it ourselves which is a great opportunity to have as a college student before you get into the real workplace. That has been really great.”

The Student Portfolio Investment Fund was established by the UMaine Foundation thirty years ago in 1993 by former professor and SPIFFY advisor Dr. Robert A. Strong, who is now the chair of the board for the UMaine Foundation. He proposed the idea to Foundation President Emeritus Amos Orcutt ’64. Orcutt and the board approved the Student Portfolio Investment Fund, and Orcutt and the board even raised the initial request for funds from $100,000 to $200,000 because they believed in the idea. Oftentimes, universities with similar groups do not use real money, but the Foundation had put its trust in the students, a decision that has paid off in a multitude of ways.

To read about Ethan Howe and the other students’ experience at the 2022 Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Trading Challenge, the full article is on the UMaine News site.

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None of the information on this website should be considered legal or financial advice. We encourage you to consult with your own legal counsel or financial/tax advisor before deciding whether or not to proceed with a gift or change to your estate plan.

Alumni create fund to honor mentor and take advantage of tax savings by using their IRA to make the gift

Karen and Tom Guter met over fifty years ago while both were students at UMaine. They later worked together in Fogler Library, as students, for Dr. James C. MacCampbell (Dr. Mac).

Dr. Mac served as the Head Librarian at UMaine from 1962-1982. He saw the library as “obviously, its center of learning.” During his tenure as head librarian, Dr. Mac oversaw dramatic changes to Fogler Library including the expansion of the building, the establishment of the special collections department, the initiation of Fogler as a regional government documents depository, the development of a master’s program in library science, and more.

To Tom and Karen, as well as to many other UMaine students, Dr. Mac was, more importantly, a mentor and a friend. Dr. Mac’s guidance changed their career paths and their lives.

Karen came to UMaine to study history and earned her bachelor’s degree in 1971. Under Dr. Mac’s tutelage, Karen obtained a master’s degree in library science at UMaine. She went on to become an award-winning school librarian for more than 30 years. She chaired the Maine Student Book Award Committee and was part of the Simmons College Children’s Literature Institute.

Although Tom majored in education at UMaine, he was also a beneficiary of Dr. Mac’s encouragement and guidance. Dr. Mac recognized Tom’s supervisory abilities right away and put him in charge of the library’s night shift as a junior. Tom pursued a master’s degree in public administration and, later, a career in management including serving as a Vice President of Claims Administration at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Maine and as Director of Human Resources for the Town of Scarborough.

The Guter’s wanted a way to recognize Dr. Mac and help UMaine at the same time. In 2022, they created an endowed fund in his honor at the University of Maine Foundation. The Dr. James C. MacCampbell Memorial Fund, will provide support for the Fogler Library for the procurement of resources.

The Guter’s made their gift using a distribution from an IRA. Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs are a very tax-savvy way to make gifts for individuals who are 70 1/2 and older. These distributions can count toward a required minimum distribution (RMD) and can be excluded from taxable income. This can be especially helpful if you don’t itemize deductions when filing your income taxes. You can learn more about qualified charitable distributions on the IRS website at bit.ly/3INNa4W.

If you would like to make a gift in honor of Dr. Mac to grow this fund further, you can do so by making a gift to the fund online at our.umaine.edu/drmac.

You can learn more about making gifts using an IRA, both during your lifetime and in your estate plans, by going to our website at umainefoundation.org/types-of-gifts/ira-qcd(for lifetime giving) or umainefoundation.org/types-of-gifts/retirement-accounts/ (for giving through a beneficiary designation).If there is someone you would like to honor by the creation of an endowed fund either during your lifetime or through a gift in your will (or other planned gift) or if you would like to learn more about giving through your IRA, please reach out to us at the UMaine Foundation at 207-581-5100.

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None of the information on this website should be considered legal or financial advice. We encourage you to consult with your own legal counsel or financial/tax advisor before deciding whether or not to proceed with a gift or change to your estate plan.

Foundation Facilitated Gift From the Goos Family Expands UMaine’s Ceramics Curriculum

As far as art goes, ceramics are exceptionally bulky. Ceramics classes need space for clay, drying shelves, kilns and a variety of glazes. For university art programs, the equipment-heavy ceramics can often fall by the wayside, even if interest is high.

Thanks to a generous donation from Sam and Sarah Goos, whose daughter Ariel studied studio art at UMaine and graduated in 2019, UMaine was able to open the Goos Family Studio. The new studio is allowing the ceramics program at UMaine to grow and giving plenty of space for students to be creative. Now that the program’s new class, Ceramics II, is wrapping up its first semester in the studio, students in the Department of Art and beyond are already seeing the impact of the gift and what it was able to achieve. The gift was facilitated through the University of Maine Foundation, with the aid of Philanthropy Officer Matt Mullen, who emphasized what an exceptional gift it was. To read more about the Goos donation, click here for the UMaine News article.

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None of the information on this website should be considered legal or financial advice. We encourage you to consult with your own legal counsel or financial/tax advisor before deciding whether or not to proceed with a gift or change to your estate plan.