Passionate for Patterson

Passionate for Patterson

How do you run an charity that grew its

endowment from $3 million to $225 million overnight? Debra Jacobs, a former Gulf Coast banking executive turned local philanthropic guru, is about to find out.

philanthropy by Mark Gordon | Managing Editor

When Debra Jacobs hit 25 years in her executive banking career, one that included creating a branch management training school for SunTrust's Bank Gulf Coast offices, she had no thoughts of doing anything else.

However her husband, Bill Buttaggi, wasn't so sure. Tired of hearing his wife "whine" nightly about this problem or that crisis, Buttaggi cornered Jacobs one day late in 1996: "You need to change your life," he told her.

Stunned a little at first, Jacobs nonetheless set out on a career exploration track that actually included penning a book about herself, her goals and her hopes. She sent the book to six people across the country she trusted and asked them point blank: What should I do with the rest of my life? She listed three choices - become an entrepreneur, work as a consultant to other banks and businesses or enter the world of nonprofits and philanthropy.

After some serious soul searching, Jacobs, 57, choose door number three, which eventually turned into a life-changing position running the Sarasota-based William G. Selby and Marie Selby Foundation. In addition to giving Jacobs a new life purpose, the post put her in the spotlight in the tight-knit foundation and philanthropic community of Greater Sarasota as a go-to person, be it for advice or, more commonly, money.

The combination of banking and philanthropic experience put Jacobs in some rarefied air. Through both roles, she became a top-notch community networker to the point where just about every senior executive in the Sarasota business, nonprofit and political communities has had some contact with Jacobs over the past two decades.

Still, the spotlight on Jacobs is about to get exponentially brighter, both in Sarasota and nationwide: Jacobs was recently hired as the chief executive officer and president of the Patterson Foundation, a 16-year-old Sarasota-based charity that skyrocketed from a tiny $3 million foundation to a $225 million philanthropic juggernaut earlier this summer.

The galactic leap came courtesy of the estate of Dorothy Patterson, a Longboat Key widow whose husband's family fortune can be traced back to the mid-1800s and Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune and onetime Chicago mayor. Dorothy Patterson died last year.

With the gift, her family's foundation instantly becomes one of the largest private charity organizations on both the Gulf Coast and in Florida. Starting in 2009, for example, the foundation is planning to give out about $12 million a year in grants to a bevy of charities, most of which are based in the Sarasota area. What's more, Patterson didn't leave specific instructions on how to use the money, so the possibilities for grant recipients are wide open.

Since the transformation of the Patterson Foundation was so quick and unusual, Jacobs's progress is sure to be watched by scores of nonprofit and foundation executives across the country.

"The weight of the responsibility is almost unbelievable," says Jacobs. "With a blank sheet of paper and that amount of resources, the amount of good you can do is unlimited."

New heights

So, too, are the amount of challenges facing the Patterson foundation. It doesn't even have stationery yet, Jacobs says. It also hasn't registered a Web site domain name, found a downtown Sarasota office it will work out off or hire a certified public accountant. More in the big picture, the foundation still lacks a vision and a list of priorities.

Not surprisingly, however, Jacobs is already getting requests for a piece of the Patterson pie. Saying no, or at least not yet, has been her biggest challenge so far.

"People see dollars and we know we have to discern," says Jacobs, who is staying on with the Selby Foundation until Dec. 31. "People are positioning their ideas before we even have a time to buy a desk."

Jacobs says she would have preferred to stay mum about the Patterson Foundation's rise to new heights as long as possible. But she knew the Selby Foundation would need time to hire a new leader, so she announced her plan in late July.

One plus for Jacobs in her new venture is that she can lean heavily on her work with the Selby Foundation, which was formed in 1955 from a $3 million gift from the Selbys, a longtime Sarasota couple whose family fortune stems from the oil and gas industries.

Successful investing has turned that $3 million gift, combined with another $16 million bequest when Marie Selby died in 1971, into one of the Gulf Coast's leading foundations when it comes to a variety of causes. Those range from the general, such as arts organizations and youth scholarships, to the hyper-specific, such as graduate level scholarships in painting and sculpture.

The Selby Foundation currently has $65 million-plus in assets and has given out more than $90 million for nonprofits in the four counties it covers: Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota.

What's more, since Jacobs joined the Selby Foundation in 1998 she has overseen the formation and administration of another eight foundations under the Selby name. "Selby is supposed to be my life's work," says Jacobs. "I feel like I came here to do this."

Jacobs enjoyed her Selby Foundation job so much she thought she would never leave it - much like her banking career.

But one day earlier this year, Jacobs took a phone call from her friend John Berteau, a Sarasota attorney who is also the Patterson Foundation's chairman. When Berteau told Jacobs about the gift Dorothy Patterson left, her first words were "B, as in a quarter of a billion dollars?"

Berteau confirmed the amount and asked for Jacobs' advice in how to proceed. Jacobs suggested they go on a field trip across the country to see how other foundations of a similar size do things. During a layover in a North Carolina airport this past spring, Berteau popped the question to Jacobs: Would she leave the Selby Foundation to run the Patterson Foundation?

Community stalwart

Jacobs, a grandmother of three who sprinkles phrases such as "super-cool" and "that's awesome" into daily conversation, took the job.

And the consensus in the local nonprofit community is that the Patterson Foundation scored a big win by landing Jacobs.

"I don't know anyone in the state of Florida who is more respected in the private foundation community," says Stewart Stearns, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. "She's got incredible skills."

In addition to her experience with Selby, Jacobs plans to lean on her past life in banking as a crutch for finding her way with the Patterson Foundation. She sees several parallels, for instance, in looking over loan requests and donation requests. Plus, like banking, running a foundation requires prudent decision-making and a constant focus on bottom-line numbers.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Jacobs went into banking straight after college, when she worked her way up to a senior vice president position with a trust company in her hometown. Jacobs moved to Sarasota in 1985, where she took a similar level position with SunTrust.

She co-founded the SunTrust Branch Management Academy for the bank, where she also became an instructor. She later taught classes at the American Bankers Association's Stonier Graduate School of Banking, where she earned a degree in 1986.

Jacobs has also become a stalwart in the Greater Sarasota business community. A list of her roles outside SunTrust and Selby in the past 20 years includes chairing the boards of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, the Sarasota County Committee of 100 and the Community Housing Corp.

Jacobs hopes her varied experiences will be her best asset in attacking the challenge of heading up the Patterson Foundation. That, and utilizing the network of executives on the Gulf Coast she has advised, counseled and assisted over the years.

"I'm confident I don't know all the questions I will get," says Jacobs. "But I'm confident I can find all the answers."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Businesses. The Patterson Foundation, Sarasota

Industry. Philanthropy, Nonprofits

Key. The foundation is going from tiny to big time, with a $225 million gift. It aims to dole out up to $12 million a year to Sarasota-area charities beginning in 2009.

Florida Foundations

Florida is one of the most generous states in the country in terms of annual giving, but its foundations are relatively small. For example, as of 2007, 62%, or 2,405 of the state's 3,874 foundations, held less than $1 million in assets, according to the Foundation Center, a New York-based philanthropic and nonprofit research organization. And of those, 35% held less than $250,000 in annual assets.

But the small makeup of Sunshine State foundations, which include corporate, community and independent-family run ones, belies Florida's sizeable giving prowess. For instance, the state's foundations gave out more than $1 billion in 2006, putting it among the top 10 nationwide in foundation-based giving. The bulk of those donations stems from the state's top 50 foundations, a mix of famous family names, obscure causes and community organizations.

The top 50 includes six Gulf Coast based foundations, although none of those six are based in Collier County, one of the highest net-worth areas in the state and country. Collier County, though, is a state leader when it comes to overall foundations: The county had 282 private foundations file 990 tax returns within the past two years, according to data from the IRS and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Only Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties had more in Florida.

Meanwhile, three of the foundations on the top 50 are based in Sarasota County. What's more, the county is sure to add a fourth foundation to the top 50, possibly the top 12, when the 2008 fiscal numbers are analyzed, thanks to a $225 million gift recently bequeathed to the Sarasota-based Patterson Foundation. (See related story.)

Foundations of Growth

Foundations in Florida grew in step with the rise of the economy and the housing market over the early and middle parts of the decade.

Category 2001 2006 %growth

Total Foundations 2,940 3,874 31.8%

Total Giving $923,331 $1,118,934 28%

Total Assets $14,168,979 $19,241,253 35.8%

Gifts received $601,115 $1,671,393 178%

Dollars in thousands. Source: The Foundation Center; the Rollins College Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center.

TOP FOUNDATIONS

The top 10 foundations in Florida ranked by assets for the 2006/2007 fiscal year, as well as the Gulf Coast-based organizations that are in the top 50.

Foundation Location Assets

1. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Miami $2,342,624,401

2. The Picower Foundation Palm Beach $685,672,092

3. Publix Super Markets Charities Lakeland $625,587,255

4. Ted Arison Family Foundation USA, Inc. Miami $511,358,232

5. Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Miami $430,089,853

6. Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation West Palm Beach $404,292,670

7. Turner Global Foundation, Inc. Lamont $322,479,841

8. Jessie Ball duPont Fund Jacksonville $313,659,069

9. Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, Inc. Miami $284,696,310

10. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Jacksonville $249,996,000

11. Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice Venice $226,048,644

20. The Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Inc. Sarasota $137,764,941

37. William G. Selby and Marie Selby Foundation Sarasota $71,772,153

38. The Bailey Family Foundation, Inc. Tampa $71,047,667

40. Pinellas County Community Foundation Clearwater $68,873,425

50. The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, Inc. Fort Myers $57,298,785

Source: The Foundation Center, www.foundationcenter.org

GULF COAST FOUNDATIONS BY COUNTY

Ranked by number of registered private foundations that filed 990 returns with the IRS over the past two years. Revenues and assets reflect the most recent fiscal year filings. (List doesn't include community-based foundations.)

County Foundations Revenue Assets

Collier 282 $423,133,056 $784,816,972

Sarasota 226 $177,969,665 $484,671,278

Pinellas 205 $101,902,232 $300,056,257

Hillsborough 184 $184,240,618 $470,012,342

Lee 126 $70,433,149 $182,687,484

Manatee 105 $47,902,996 $173,039,423

Pasco 24 $2,117,327 $13,131,480

Charlotte 15 $6,164,901 $10,593,851

Source: National Center for Charitable Statistics; Urban Institute; Internal Revenue Service.