Renaissance Donor

At first glance, it would appear that Frankee Oleson’s gifts to Iowa State University are very diverse. Annual gifts made by Frankee and her husband, Jim, support the Season at Stephens, Cyclone athletics, the department of music, the College of Veterinary Medicine, the ISU Alumni Association, the department of entomology, Reiman Gardens, University Museums, and much more.

There is, however, a method to their giving.

“Our gifts come from our life experiences,” Frankee said. “We’re interested in animals, the arts, athletics — not as participants necessarily, but as observers.”

Neither Frankee nor Jim are Iowa State alumni. But you would have to work hard to find more loyal supporters. The couple can be found at the latest Season at Stephens performance, the next women’s basketball game or at the Small Animal Clinic with their cat.

It was that quality of life the couple was seeking when they moved to Ames in the mid-1970s.

“We had always moved to where the jobs were,” Frankee said. “We decided to do this in reverse and find a place where we wanted to live the rest of our lives. We moved here and found jobs, and the quality of life was a primary consideration.”

Frankee and Jim soon started giving back to Iowa State in the form of annual gifts. However, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the couple found out what they really could accomplish with their philanthropy.

They went to a financial planner. That eye-opening experience presented them with an opportunity to do a little estate planning.

“He explained estate planning to us and a light bulb came on,” Frankee said. “We could leave a legacy. When we were done we thought ‘Wow! This is our legacy.’”

That first legacy Frankee and Jim left was a deferred gift to the College of Veterinary Medicine Companion Animal Fund. But it didn’t stop there. They established the Jim and Frankee Oleson Scholarship for women’s basketball and then assisted Frankee’s father, Frank Horn, in establishing a similar scholarship for the sport.

“Jim and I made a list of things that are important in our lives,” she said. “We’ve mixed annual giving with estate planning to support areas that we believe in.

“We not only wanted to provide help to these programs right now, but we also want to ensure that our support doesn’t end when we die. We found out that we had more capability to help these areas through our estates than we could ever hope to accomplish through just annual giving.”