On a Tuesday morning in mid-September, the leaders of 82 nonprofit groups from across upstate New York arrived at the Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship, unsure of why they had been summoned.
The guest list read like a who’s who of community leaders from Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo. Many of them knew each other, and all were mystified about the event, which had been announced on short notice. They knew only that Thomas Golisano was slated to speak.
“It was very informal. We had no idea why we had been called in there,” recalls Sarah Milko, the founder and CEO of AutismUp and vice chair of the Golisano Autism Center. “We didn’t know if he was going to announce he was retiring or building a new building.”
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On a Tuesday morning in mid-September, the leaders of 82 nonprofit groups from across upstate New York arrived at the Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship, unsure of why they had been summoned.
The guest list read like a who’s who of community leaders from Rochester, Syracuse, and Buffalo. Many of them knew each other, and all were mystified about the event, which had been announced on short notice. They knew only that Thomas Golisano was slated to speak.
Much of the money went to social-services groups that support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“It was very informal. We had no idea why we had been called in there,” recalls Sarah Milko, the founder and CEO of AutismUp and vice chair of the Golisano Autism Center. “We didn’t know if he was going to announce he was retiring or building a new building.”
Golisano is the billionaire founder of Paychex, a Rochester-based company that provides services in payroll, human resources, benefits, and insurance to small to midsize businesses throughout the United States and northern Europe. He is also one of upstate New York’s most prominent philanthropists, whose name graces the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse, the American Cancer Society’s Golisano Hope Lodge, and the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Golisano Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Institute.
When he took the podium, Golisano shared that his family had spent a lot of time in the hospital over the previous three weeks. His 5-year-old great-granddaughter had successfully received a heart transplant; his 95-year-old sister underwent a hip replacement; and he personally collapsed while at his foundation’s offices. After rushing to the hospital in an ambulance, he had a pacemaker implanted. These three health events changed his outlook.
“The only wealth you get to keep is that which you give away,” he said, fighting tears. “So today, we’re going to give away some. We are committing $360 million to nonprofit organizations across upstate New York.”
The room erupted in jubilant applause.
Rapid-fire, Golisano read off a list of organizations, followed by the amount he was giving to each. Stunned charity leaders lined up to receive an envelope on stage.
“People were in shock,” says Darrell Bell, vice president for advancement at Nazareth University, which received $5 million. “You could see all of these different leaders who were just in awe. The joy, the shock, the ‘oh my goodness, this is going to change my organization’s trajectory’ — all of these big emotions.”
One more bombshell: Every gift would be unrestricted.
“We define entrepreneurship very simple in this institute, and that is: Finding a better way to do things,” Golisano said to the crowd. “We hope with these resources, your organizations can find better ways to do things.”
‘A Lot of Fun’
“First of all, the fact that it was a surprise made it a lot of fun,” says Golisano, who is No. 8 on the Philanthropy 50.
He says that many of the recipients appeared in an earlier version of his will, but in the wake of his health scare over the summer, he rethought the strategy of making them wait.
“Why don’t I do it now so they can start using the funds today? It could be one year or it could be five years until that will is read,” says Golisano, who is 83.
In late August, Golisano went to Erica Dayton, executive director of the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation, with his idea and a copy of his will.
Because his estate plan was last revised pre-Covid, many of the beneficiaries had since merged or dissolved. With input from the foundation’s trustees and Matthew Ray, who oversees the Golisano family office, Dayton put together a new, comprehensive list of what the foundation had supported more recently. Golisano reviewed the list extensively before approving it, and Dayton threw together the announcement event with just a few weeks’ notice.
Announcing it in person also afforded Golisano the opportunity to see the charity leaders’ reactions to what, for many of them, will be transformative gifts. “I don’t think I’ve ever been hugged so many times,” he says.
I don’t think I’ve ever been hugged so many times.
After the successful morning in Rochester, Dayton organized a second event in Naples, Fla. — the foundation’s other geographic focus. There, in November, Golisano revealed an additional $85 million in gifts to 41 organizations in southwest Florida, where he spends the winter months.
The Golisano Foundation itself received $52 million from him for its endowment last year, bringing its assets up to $120 million. “There might be some more to come in the future,” Golisano hints.
Looking forward, Dayton and the grant maker’s other two full-time employees will review yearly reports from charities on how they’re managing and spending the money, but she says the foundation will keep the reins loose.
“We know that they can handle it,” Dayton says. “Most of them are calling to ask, ‘What does Tom want us to do with the money?’ because they’ve never received an unrestricted gift before. But we tell them, ‘You know your organization best.’”
Helping Children With Disabilities
While many billionaire donors give to hospitals and universities, few support the other types of charities that Golisano favors. Last year, he donated $34 million to 43 animal-welfare groups — a priority of his wife, the retired tennis champion Monica Seles.
He also notably gave $133 million to 35 organizations that serve people with autism or intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Many of those groups had never before received a seven-figure donation, let alone a multimillion-dollar gift.
Golisano directs so much of his philanthropy to support the vital services these groups provide to other parents of children with IDD — because he knows firsthand what that road is like.
His son, Steven, is 58 years old and has flourished in programs at the nonprofit Holy Childhood for the past 35 years. Steven Golisano has friends there and a job in its woodshop, and he lives independently in nearby supportive housing with his golden retriever, Nova. (His father gave Holy Childhood $5 million in September.)
Illustration by Sean McCabe for The Chronicle.Image from The Golisano Foundation
Paychex founder Thomas Golisano surprised leaders of 82 charities in upstate New York with the news that they were getting gifts of $250,000 to $10 million apiece
Golisano shared that providing for Steven’s complex needs was a chief motivator for him in his career. He started Paychex in 1971, when his son was still a toddler and resources for families of children with disabilities were scarce.
“We wanted to make sure we were in a financial position where he wouldn’t become a ward of the state,” Golisano says.
“The world is so different today,” he continues. “People [with disabilities] are more accepted in the community now than they were in the previous century. The world has changed so much for the positive in this area, and it’s because of these organizations and their will to do something positive.”
‘Life-Changing’ Gifts
Several of the organizations Golisano supports help families like his plan for the future. A housing analysis from last year revealed that 25 percent of adults with developmental disabilities in upstate New York live at home with parents who are over age 60. Not knowing where their children will live after they are gone is a major source of stress for aging parents, but AutismUp, which received $3 million from Golisano, is working to reduce that anxiety.
Milko, the group’s founder, says the plan is to seed an endowment, upgrade technology, expand remote learning, train the 40-member staff, recruit clinicians who graduate from local colleges and universities, and develop a strategy for housing advocacy.
Golisano has given to her group going back to 2017, but she said the no-strings-attached gift couldn’t have come at a more critical time for AutismUp. “Our organization was falling short, and we were scrambling to figure out how we were going to break even by the end of the year,” Milko says. “And to have it be unrestricted — it was life-changing for families with autism living in Rochester.”
For Andrew Bennett, chief development officer at Kaleida Health and Oishei Buffalo Children’s Hospital, the $10 million gift to the child-health center was particularly shocking because Golisano had never donated before.
A hospital board member had introduced Bennett to Golisano in 2020, but neither Golisano nor his foundation had yet written a check. Bennett says the hospital will primarily use its share of the money to enhance its services in pediatric mental and behavioral health.
However, the generosity didn’t end there: Bennett says the hospital’s winter gala raised a record-breaking $2.3 million, which he chalks up to the Golisano effect. A six-figure donation that night came from a board member who had attended the September event in Rochester and was moved to follow suit. “There is no question it was influenced by Tom’s gift,” Bennett says.
While it was several years between the initial contact and a gift from Golisano, cultivating a relationship with a major donor requires patience, authenticity, and confidence in your mission, Bennett advises. Philanthropists are already eager to use their wealth for good, he says, and fundraisers can paint a vivid picture for them by speaking with passion about their cause.
“Don’t be intimidated, and don’t think they are not approachable or that they don’t want to make a difference. We might feel timid, but our role is to play the connector to people who want to help,” he says. “They are looking for someone to help them along on that journey. You have to ask. You just have to ask.”
