Donor Spotlight: Ferne Daniel
As a Columbia Basin Foundation Office Administrator, it is my responsibility to manage our 112 funds. Let me share a snapshot about Ferne Daniel and her generosity on what would have been her 97th birthday…
On September 5, 1922, Margaret Mahesentine Ferne Daniel was born to William and Fairrie Daniel. As an only child, Ferne was raised on their dryland wheat farm in Sheep Canyon northwest of Ephrata. After graduating from high school, she attended Whitworth College in Spokane and then transferred and earned her teaching degree from Central Washington University. In 1944, she began teaching and serving as a librarian in Wenatchee then returned to her hometown of Ephrata in 1946. Over the next 24 years, she taught in Ephrata before retiring from education but kept managing various business properties. As a farmer’s daughter, she grew up learning to love the land and before she passed away, she donated her family farm to Washington State University and the Daniel Family Endowment Fund was created in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics. Her wish was that their dryland wheat farm could benefit all farmers, so the fund supports research programs for wheat breeding and precision farming.
In 2007, at the age of 84, Ferne passed away and left the Columbia Basin Foundation a $2 million bequest. Since then, the Columbia Basin Foundation has invested, managed, and distributed from the funds that Ferne Daniel generously created. It is our fiduciary responsibility to ensure that her wishes are precisely met and followed. Ferne was quite detailed, and she outlined that 23 different organizations receive annual distributions. She also created the Ferne Daniel Extraordinary Effort Scholarship. She cared about agriculture, children, education, healthcare, animals, community, and religious organizations. Let’s just say her philanthropic heart beats into perpetuity! With my own grateful heart, I see how Ferne’s wishes are improving and enriching lives in the Columbia Basin and beyond. Since Ferne’s CBF Endowment was created in 2007, the Columbia Basin Foundation has distributed $1 MILLION from the investment growth from her original $2 MILLION. Clearly, an endowment is a donation of money or property to a non-profit organization, which uses the resulting investment income for a specific purpose. I think Ferne would be happy to know on her birthday that her gift just keeps on giving! Thank you Ferne Daniel for this wonderful legacy.
Big birthday wishes for Ferne!