Virginia B. Toulmin took over a near-bankrupt pharmaceutical company in Seymour, Indiana in 1965, after her husband died just seven years into their marriage, and ran it until 1995, when she sold it to a German conglomerate for $178 million. William Villafranco, one of three lifetime trustees she personally selected, explains that Toulmin left her foundation with essentially no written direction beyond two major gifts: $80 million to Georgetown University Medical Center, its second-largest gift ever, and $26 million to the Dayton Community Foundation. The rest, funded at $140 million when she died in 2010, was left to the trustees' judgment, a structure Villafranco calls almost unheard of in private philanthropy, where donors typically name specific institutions rather than trusting people to adapt as the world changes.
That trust produced some unexpected results, including a nursing school in Bangkok that Toulmin funded after learning that girls aging out of Thailand's foster care system had few options besides the sex trade; the program has since graduated 500 nursing assistants into the country's hospital system. Villafranco, who calls Toulmin almost a surrogate mother, describes how she helped him through a period of grief over the loss of his son, staying on the phone with him daily even while he lived in New Jersey.
A children's book series to carry the name forward
Author Kevin Pease, visiting Sarasota for the first time, is writing an eight-part book series imagining Toulmin's childhood, starting with a 1936 story about her love of the symphony. The first book publishes in May through Miami-based VJ Publishing, with a second planned around International Girls Day in November and additional volumes timed to what would have been her 100th birthday on September 27, 2026. Pease says the goal is to put Toulmin's name and values, faith, generosity, and quiet giving without her name on any building, in front of the children who benefit from foundation-funded scholarships and programs, since her own contemporaries are aging and her story risks being lost.
A hard no on roundabouts
Pease, on his first visit to Sarasota, does not hold back on the city's roundabouts, saying he cannot maneuver them and has resorted to cutting across traffic. Villafranco, a regular visitor from New Jersey, is more forgiving of the city's overall growth and new downtown restaurants even as he notes the foundation is also funding workforce housing to offset rising costs for the nonprofit workers it partners with.
What you'll take away
- Virginia B. Toulmin sold her pharmaceutical company for $178 million in 1995 and left her $140 million foundation to three trustees with almost no written direction
- The foundation funds a Bangkok nursing school that has graduated 500 girls aging out of Thailand's foster care system into hospital jobs
- An eight-part children's book series imagining Toulmin's childhood begins publishing in May, aiming to carry her values to the next generation of scholarship recipients
- The foundation operates by invitation only and emphasizes hands-on involvement with grantees over simply writing checks
- Trustee William Villafranco says Toulmin never wanted her name on a building, believing the best way to be spoken well of was to do good quietly
“She never wanted names on a building. She always felt that the best way to have someone speak good about you is to do good for that person.”
“Trust was the single most important aspect in Virginia's becoming friends with Virginia.”
Places mentioned: Selby Gardens, Downtown Sarasota