A permanent spark for Madison Trust

Benefactor Edward Rice doubles the endowment for faculty innovation program

News

SUMMARY: Former Board of Visitors member Edward Rice gives JMU $100,000 to double the Madison Trust Innovation Endowment. His gift ensures long-term support for faculty and staff innovation while reflecting a lifelong belief in curiosity, equity and the power of public education.

Edward Rice with donors and faculty members at a Madison Trust reception — Edward Rice engages with other donors and faculty members at a Madison Trust reception.

“I consider the public education system to be the heart and the soul of American civilization,” Edward Rice says. “The ability to give everybody a good education and start on their path through life is one of the most important things that a society can do.”

That belief is what led Rice, a former member of the Board of Visitors, to support and double the Madison Trust Innovation Endowment, which was created by Robin and John Reifsnider with an initial endowment of $100,000. Rice’s $100,000 gift helps create a permanent, self-sustaining source of funding for JMU faculty and staff innovation, ensuring the program’s work can continue well into the future.

For a long time, Rice supported individual projects, and, now, he is choosing to invest in the process itself. “Instead of supporting one or two of the excellent proposals,” he says, “the Madison Trust was a way to encourage a community of support for many such ideas.”

Rice takes notes as JMU faculty presents in Madison Trust boardroom — Rice takes notes as JMU faculty members present about virtual reality training that can equip nursing students and family caregivers to deliver dementia care across cultures.

Investing in education, opportunity

Rice’s commitment to education began long before his involvement with JMU. He grew up attending public schools in Bedford, New York, starting in a one-room schoolhouse where multiple grade levels shared one teacher and one blackboard. “There’s nothing more equitable than that,” he says. “While shared outcomes aren’t always guaranteed, shared access should be.” That early experience instilled a lasting respect for public institutions and the role they play in creating opportunity.

Discovering innovation at JMU

Rice’s first formal connection to JMU came through his appointment to the Board of Visitors in 2014, when the newly-formed Madison Trust began to capture his imagination. The donor-engaged, idea-driven model invites faculty and staff members to pitch innovative projects with real-world impact. “I found it really stimulating,” Rice said. “It stretched how I thought about the purpose of a university.”

While he admits it felt unusual at first to weigh in on projects outside his own expertise, the process quickly became energizing. “I was being asked where I wanted to put my money,” he remembers. “That question is really important. It’s harder to answer than simply, ‘What seems worthwhile?’ in a general sense.”

Student researchers and one of the Madison Trust donors work together to deploy the artificial oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay. — Madison Trust projects often result in real-world experiences for students as well as real-world benefits. For their project Concrete Spit, Biology Professor Patrice Ludwig’s students work together to deploy the artificial oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay.

Over the years, Rice supported several Madison Trust projects. A standout in his mind is a past project — Concrete Spit, which developed specialized concrete containing limestone, strengthening oyster shells and improving reef health in the Chesapeake Bay. For Rice, projects like that embodied what the program does best: pairing academic expertise with tangible public benefit. “Madison Trust kept me thinking about what a university is really here to do,” he says. “I think universities are here to serve their students and their communities. Therefore, these ideas fit squarely within that mission.”

On the Board of Visitors, Rice rotated through every committee and valued being able to support the institution as a whole rather than advocate for one area over another. “I never had an outside agenda,” he said. “It was always what’s best for the students, the faculty, the staff and the university taken together.” Watching JMU commencement ceremonies became a “thrilling” part of the job: “Every time I saw somebody receive their JMU diploma, I thought to myself that a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of that credit goes to me,” Rice said. “And that means a lot.”

Rice weighs in during a Madison Trust pitch at the boardroom — Rice weighs in during a Madison Trust pitch.

Innovation in perpetuity

By supporting Madison Trust, Rice helps ensure the program he finds so valuable will remain a lasting engine for innovation, according to Ryan Boals, associate director of Corporate and Foundation Relations and project manager of Madison Trust. Endowment funds are invested, Boals explains, with a portion of their value distributed annually to support their purpose. Rice's $100,000 gift will increase the Madison Trust Innovation Endowment to $200,000. As a result, the endowment will generate approximately $10,000 to be distributed each year across Madison Trust projects.

“It’s an investment in innovation at JMU in perpetuity,” Boals says. “As the endowment grows, the impact compounds, strengthening the program’s ability to support faculty and staff ideas year after year. Edward Rice will directly keep the curiosity and sense of possibility that Madison Trust is known for alive for generations to come.”

That’s exactly why Rice made the gift: “To be able to be a tiny part of that,” Rice says, “both challenges me and humbles me.”