Dayton Foundation receives record gift

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - The Dayton Foundation announced recently the receipt of the largest single gift in the Foundation’s 89-year history.

The legacy gift of Virginia Bernthal Toulmin is valued at more than $26 million. The gift endows the Harry A. Toulmin, Jr., and Virginia B. Toulmin Fund of The Dayton Foundation.

As an unrestricted fund of The Dayton Foundation, it will be utilized by the Foundation where community need or opportunity is greatest in Greater Dayton today and in perpetuity. It will make possible the increasing of The Dayton Foundation’s unrestricted grantmaking by roughly $1 million a year to the region’s nonprofit organizations and leadership initiatives important to our region’s vitality and future.

Virginia Toulmin, who passed away in June, was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, was trained as a nurse, and became a successful businesswoman following the death of her husband, international patent attorney Harry A. Toulmin, Jr. She also is the daughter-in-law to Harry A. Toulmin, Sr., the famed attorney who secured and defended the Wright Brothers’ patent for their flying machine.

Greater Dayton nonprofits interested in applying for a grant should visit The Dayton Foundation ’s website .