‌Gifts and Endowment Opportunities At North Florida Research and Education Center

The purpose of the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC) is to enhance Agriculture and Natural Resources in North Florida.  We do that through innovation, imagination and problem solving.  The NFREC has helped release over 200 plant varieties and cultivars, solved crop disease problems, developed cropping and Integrated Plant Management systems, and continues to make the future of N. Florida agriculture secure.  In order to continue the research and extension that allows us to serve N. Florida, we must rely upon help from and the generosity of our friends and industry partners through private giving and endowment gifts.  Opportunities to give are outlined below. Each gift helps the NFREC continue to serve N. Florida as state budgets decline and as the need for problem solving increases.  The average return on investment for Agricultural research is about 10 to 1, so it is a good investment in Florida’s future; and you decide how you wish your gift to be spent.

Endowment gifting opportunities include:

• Stephen M. Olson NFREC Horticultural Sciences Endowment
• Gardens of the Big Bend
• NFREC Excellence Fund
• Donald F. May Endowment for Ornamental Research 
• Fountain H. May, Sr. Scholarship/Fellowship Fund 
• Sam Calhoun Fleming Fellowship

North Florida Research and Education Center

Stephen M. Olson NFREC Horticultural Sciences Endowment

This fund supports the horticultural sciences program at the North Florida Research and Education Center and was named in honor of Dr. Stephen M. Olson, former professor at NFREC.  https://www.uff.ufl.edu/OnlineGiving/FundDetail.asp?FundCode=020137 

If you are interested in discussing a gift endowment, please contact:

North Florida Research and Education Center

The Gardens of the Big Bend

The Gardens of the Big Bend is a collaboration of the NFREC and the Gardening Friends of the Big Bend. The mission of the Gardens is to become a regional showcase displaying the best plants and gardening methods while (a) serving as a living laboratory to evaluate new plants for gardeners, nursery growers and landscapers,  (b) promoting garden plants adapted to regional landscapes of north Florida and the greater Gulf Coast, (c) demonstrating environmentally sound principles of landscaping, and (d) providing a beautiful and educational environment for students, visitors and local/regional citizens. The purpose of the Gardens of the Big Bend Fund is to construct, maintain and enhance the Gardens. Please visit the Gardens of the Big Bend website at: http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/gardens.shtml.

A gift to the Gardens of the Big Bend will first be used to construct the 10 plant collections. Your gift can be toward the construction of a specific collection, or general gift for building the garden.  Our first plant collection (the Discovery Garden) is complete and our priority for building the next three plant collections is:

• Aboriginal Garden (native plant garden)
• Beauty in the Shadows (Hydrangea, Azalea and other plants for Shaded Areas)
• Celebrating Southern Heritage Plants (focusing on Camelias and including other plants important to traditional southern gardeners)

You can get a complete list of the plant collections by downloading this gfbb that gives the plant collection’s: name, size, and construction cost.

To Give A Gift For The Construction Of The Gardens Of The Big Bend -- click here

A gift Endowment for the Garden?

The long-term maintenance of the Garden of the Big Bend will be accomplished through gift endowments. A gift endowment creates a permanent fund that allows us to spend its interest annually. An endowment requires a minimum of $30,000 and can receive additional contributions over time. This gfbb provides the endowment levels we are seeking for each plant collection.

Naming gift opportunities are available for any of the collection areas. 

The entire garden is also a single gift naming opportunity.  If interested in making a GIFT ENDOWMENT, please contact:

North Florida Research and Education Center

Excellence Fund

 The North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC) is one of the most diverse Research and Education Centers in the Institute of Food and Agriculture, University of Florida System, having programs ranging from Beef Cattle Management, to Wildlife, to Forestry, to Row Crops, to Vegetable Crops to Specialty Crops. Its programs vary from Integrated Pest Management, to Nutrient Management, to Plant Breeding. The Excellence Fund is designed to (1) address immediate important issues that arise among the NFREC clientele, as well as (2) enhance the facilities and equipment of the NFREC.

The NFREC seeks to solve N. Florida’s problems related to Agriculture and Natural Resources.  Our success stories of the past have added millions of dollars to the economy. As an example, learning how to manage cotton hardlock disease continues to add 20 to 40 million dollars per year to the N. Florida economy.  As the state of Florida becomes less able to support this type of research, we must look to our clientele for support.  The great diversity of crops and programs at the NFREC means that we have an equal diversity of problems to solve – often those problems need specialized equipment that we must buy or maintain. The NFREC Excellence Fund is a general fund that we can use to address immediate problems that arise; or to improve the facilities and equipment.  If you wish to give to the NFREC Excellence Fund, click here.

To get an overview of our accomplishments and programs, please visit the NFREC website at http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/.

A gift endowment?

Another way of supporting the NFREC is through gifted endowments.  A $30,000 gift is the minimum required to open an endowment.  This is a gift that earns interest each year. The interest can be spent by the NFREC or can be allowed to accumulate over time, allowing the fund to increase. It is another way of having funds to address new and immediate problems.  If you are interested in discussing a gift endowment, please contact:

North Florida Research and Education Center

Donald F. May Endowment for Ornamental Research

This fund was established in 1993 by the May Nursery, in memory of Donald F. May, to support research on ornamentals at the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC). This endowment supports research by providing materials, labor and other support for topics that directly affect the nursery industry in North Florida. Topics include, but are not limited to, testing of varieties and cultivars, investigating the invasiveness of new introductions, and working with the efficiency of nursery management practices. You can add to this endowment by clicking here.  A gift endowment is a sum of money that earns interest each year.  The NFREC can spend a portion of that interest to meet the objectives outlined by the gift endowment. We can also let the funds accumulate for several years in order to have a larger fund that can support the most innovative and imaginative research options we have available.

For further information on research that benefits the nursery industry visit the NFREC website at http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/ and see what work is going on in Environmental Horticulture.

North Florida Research and Education Center

Fountain H. May Sr. Scholarship/Fellowship Fund

Established in 2002 by friend, Julia Woodward, this fund honors Fountain "Fount" H. May, Sr., an agricultural leader who helped introduce Florida nursery products around the world. Fount was the owner of a 300-acre container nursery in Quincy and was part of the Florida Nurserymen and Growers Association for more than 30 years. Throughout his career, Fount made great efforts to promote a global marketplace for Florida products in Europe and the Far East. 

This scholarship was established to support students pursing studies at the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC). Our field and laboratory facilities support a variety of graduate students. Our students can live on campus in Quincy and Marianna in multipurpose buildings. Many of them live on our campuses for semesters and years at a time.  Our students are our best bridge between the NFREC, the UF campus in Gainesville, and the multitude of agencies and universities with which we collaborate.  We seek the most qualified and imaginative students for our programs, realizing that it is often their fresh ideas and new perspectives that may find the breakthrough we need to solve a problem.  We also realize that we are training the future professionals in our disciplines and providing individuals the knowledge, skills and contacts to have a successful career.

If you are interested in adding to this graduate student support endowment, click here.

For further information on activities at the NFREC, please visit the following website: http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu/.

North Florida Research and Education Center

Sam Calhoun Fleming Fellowship

This fellowship came to the North Florida Research and Education Center in 2012. It is funded by the Panama Machinery and Supply Co. along with seven Fleming family members in honor of Sam Calhoun Fleming, a prominent Panama City resident.  In addition to his service to Panama City, Fleming was a trustee of Birmingham Southern, a trustee of Huntington College of Montgomery and a board member of the Foundation of the University of West Florida.  A gift endowment is a sum of money that provides about 4% of the endowment value for use each year. This endowment supports graduate students studying Beef Research at the North Florida Research and Education Center in Marianna, FL; a unit of UF.  The center piece of this research is the Feed Efficiency Building which is a fully computerized research facility that can measure food and water intake by the animal in real time. It is the second largest unit in the US and the only one in the world that researches tropical and sub-tropical breeds of cattle.

If you would like to contribute to this endowment and support beef research through graduate studies click here. You can contribute on-line using a credit card or other options are available.

For further information on Beef Research activities at the NFREC, please visit our webpage at http://nfrec.ifas.ufl.edu.