Jim Towler [pronounced with a long o and a silent w] is the vice president of major gifts and planned giving for United Way of Northeast Florida. Their headquarters is in the AvMed Building on the Southbank.
WHAT IS THE ORGANIZATION’S FOCUS?
Roughly 100 charities that provide health and human services benefit from donations to United Way. “This year we’ll raise in the range of $20 million. Some of the dollars go into a community fund. Some of the other dollars are directed by donors. We actually send their gift to that agency, then monitor those programs to make sure that agency is being run correctly.”
HOW LONG WITH THE CHARITY?
“Ten years ago I started as a campaign director running all the corporate accounts. I worked my way through the organization. My strength revolves around building one-on-one relationships with people.”
TO WHOM DOES HE MARKET?
“We do low-key direct marketing to those that own homes over $650,000. Our major gift program is called the Alexis de Tocqueville Society. To qualify, donors must give $10,000 or more a year. United Way created this society back in the early 1980s after a French philosopher. Before then, we had never really focused on individual donors. We saw, to be successful in the future, we needed to communicate more to the donors and not just through corporations.”
WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?
The Community Foundation is teaming with the United Way to manage endowments or bequests to the philanthropic organization. They are in the process of forming the foundation in order to broad avenues to serve local children, elders and the disabled. Towler estimates the paperwork to incorporate and file their status with the IRS will take about six months. “Our newest initiative is Life Act II, which is focused on services to the elderly because they are the fastest growing population in Northeast Florida.”
WHAT IS HIS BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
“There are a lot of people in the community who could make a difference but we haven’t been able to reach them. It’s frustrating.”
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS?
Towler is a member of the Meninak Club, the National Planned Giving Conference and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
HOMETOWN
Wilmington, N.C.
WHERE DOES HE LIVE NOW?
Grenada, off San Jose Boulevard, is where he and his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Emma, call home. His wife is the executive director for the Blue Foundation. “We grew up two blocks from each other, but we never met until after college.”
EDUCATION
Towler graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology.
WHAT OTHER WORK HAS HE DONE?
After college Towler was employed at an automobile dealership. In the decade that he worked there, Towler went from selling cars to handling the company’s finances.
WHY LEAVE THE DEALERSHIP?
“I felt like all I was doing was working so I got involved with a young professional group called Espirit de Corps back in the 1980s. We did fundraising for Hospice. I really liked giving back to the community. The business world I liked, but I like the non-profit world, too. This was a way to do both.”
WHAT ARE HIS HOBBIES?
A homebody, Towler enjoys restoring his historic home, tilling his garden and watching the “Survivor” reality show. Other favorites of his are collecting antiques, especially old wind-up wrist watches, and eating at Moe’s Southwestern Grill.
— by Monica Tsai