Sterling C. Franklin
About Sterling Franklin
Sterling Franklin, now age 76 and living in Van Nuys, California, attended Westchester High School (in the Los Angeles Unified School District, near the Los Angeles International Airport), graduating in 1964. He earned his B.A. in Political Science at Stanford in 1968. He gained his teaching credential from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1969 and taught 10th grade Geography and 12th grade Civics at Morningside High School in Inglewood, California, from 1970 to 1972, and he earned his Master of Science in Secondary Education degree (M.S.Ed.) in 1970 from USC. He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Loyola Law School in 1975. He earned his Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) degree from USC in 1976. He worked for several non-profit organizations and practiced law. From 1978 to 1982, he was the Assistant Dean for Development (head fund raiser) at the USC Law School, so he knows many things about fundraising. In 1993, he became a Trustee of the Morris S. Smith Foundation when it was established by his friend, Morris S. Smith, and he has been able to give charitable gifts to colleges and universities and other charities since then, including to Los Angeles City College. So, he knows a lot about giving money away. Sometimes he is able to encourage donors to contribute to a good cause by offering “a challenge match”—he will match with gifts from the Morris S. Smith Foundation dollar for dollar what other donors give to a particular cause. He is pleased to be able to support programs and students at Los Angeles City College.
Sterling’s Initial Giving to LACC in 2017-2018
Sterling first met Robert Schwartz, Executive Director of the Los Angeles City College Foundation, in fall, 2017, and he learned from Robert about the many needs of Los Angeles City College. Responding to Robert’s encouragement that he become a donor to LACC, Sterling gave $10,000 in September, 2017, from the Morris S. Smith Foundation to add to the endowment of the existing “Marilou and Mark Hamill Family Endowed Scholarship Fund,” plus a $875 cash spendable gift to provide a Hamill Family Scholarship Award in spring semester, 2018. In October, 2017, Sterling gave $40,000 to establish the “Marta K. Ruano and Sterling C. Franklin Endowment Fund to Provide Awards to Students in the LACC Guardian Scholars Program,” plus a $1,400 cash spendable gift to provide Ruano and Franklin Awards during the fall and spring semesters. In December, 2017, to honor LACC President Reneé Martinez on the occasion of her retirement, he gave $12,500 as a challenge match gift to establish the “President Reneé D. Martinez Legacy Endowed Scholarship Fund to Support Students in the Los Angeles City College STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Pathways Program,” and $38,046 in matching gifts were raised, for a total of $50,546, which was matched 1:1 by money from the 2016 matching challenge grant of $1 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s five-year “Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) Program,” for a grand total in the Martinez Legacy Endowed Scholarship Fund of $101,092. In March, 2018, he gave a $1,400 cash spendable gift to provide the first two President Reneé Martinez Scholarship Awards in the 2018 spring and fall semesters, while the endowment money in the Martinez Legacy Endowed Scholarship Fund was earning investment income in order to generate spendable payout for scholarship awards the next year. In April, 2018, he gave $5,000 to guarantee that all LACC students would be able to get their flu shots. In July, 2018, he donated $7,000 to pay for buying and planting trees to beautify the LACC campus. In August, 2018, he gave $10,000 to support the LACC Food Pantry on campus to be sure that “food insecure” (read “hungry”) LACC students could get free food at the food distributions held Monday and Thursday mornings, and also to support the new “Food for Thought Program” that was initiated by LACC President Dr. Mary Gallagher to provide LACC students with nutritious meals during their mid-term and final exam weeks each semester, which improved the students’ performances on their exams.
Sterling’s Further Giving to LACC from 2020 to 2023
In June, 2020, Sterling gave $10,000 to provide flu shots for LACC students and to support the LACC Student Emergency Fund. In April, 2021, he gave $10,000 to support the 2021 LACC Virtual Gala and thereby support the LACC Guardian Scholars Program with unrestricted money. In April, 2022, he added $60,000 to the endowment of the “Ruano and Franklin Endowment Fund” to bring its endowment total up from $40,000 to $100,000; and he donated $25,000 as a challenge matching gift to establish the “Robert Schwartz and Alan Daniels Endowment Fund.” In September, 2022, he gave $4,000 so the Marta K. Ruano and Sterling C. Franklin Endowment Fund initial eight $500 Awards can be given to LACC Guardian Scholars Program students, four Awards in fall, 2022 and four Awards in spring, 2023. Also, in September, he gave $3,000 so the LACC Math Club could provide pizzas, salad, and sodas to the students who will meet each Friday during the 2022-23 academic year to discuss sophisticated math problems with the Math Club Coach, as they prepare to take a fall exam and a spring exam, one hour each, 20 multiple choice questions, in the annual American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) National Math Competition which involves over 120 two-year colleges and over 12,000 students across America. The LACC Math Club’s Math Team has come in first in the nation six times since 2004. Sterling also gave $4,000 for the Math Club Coach’s pay for fall semester, 2022. Sterling also donated $50,000 to support the 2022 LACC Gala at the Skirball Center on October 27, 2022. $25,000 of this went to the newly established LACC Guardian Scholars Program Endowment Fund which has a goal of raising $1 million. This endowment fund will generate investment income spendable payout each year which will help to pay for the general expenses of the LACC Guardian Scholars Program.
In April, 2023, Sterling gave $4,000 for the LACC Math Club Coach’s pay for spring semester, 2023. He gave $7,000 to pay half the expenses for the bus trip by LACC Upward Bound students and staff to tour seven universities in northern California: University of California, Merced; UC Davis (including the Veterinary School); Chico State University, Sacramento State University; UC Berkeley; Stanford University; and UC Santa Cruz. This trip was to show the students what a university is like. He gave $50,000 to establish the “Dr. Anatoliy Nikolaychuk Endowment Fund to Provide Awards for Students in the Los Angeles City College Math Department” each fall and spring semesters to honor the memory of Dr. Nikolaychuk, who died on June 6, 2019, at age 77. Dr. Nikolaychuk, an immigrant from Ukraine who held a Ph.D. in Mathematics, came from teaching math classes at Santa Monica City College, Los Angeles Valley College, and Pasadena City College (all part-time) to be a full-time Professor of Mathematics at LACC in 2000. He quickly created of the LACC Math Club and the LACC Math Team, and he inspired and nurtured many LACC math students until his death at age 77 on June 6, 2019. LACC’s Math Team (the top five students from the LACC Math Club) won first place six times in the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) National Math competition involving over 120 colleges and over 12,000 student contestants, including first place in 2019. Sterling also gave $4,000 cash spendable so the initial eight Nikolaychuk Awards of $500 each can be given in fall, 2023, and in spring, 2024. Sterling will work with LACC to solicit Dr. Nikolaychuk’s former math students to try to raise a matching $50,000 in endowment funds.
In all, Sterling has donated $316,175 to the LACC Foundation, including $234,500 in endowment funding and $81,675 in cash spendable funding. Also, his $12,500 challenge matching gift to establish the President Reneé D. Martinez Legacy Endowed Scholarship Fund generated an additional $38,046 in endowment money from matching gifts and a $50,546 dollar for dollar match from the federal “Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) Program” $1 million matching opportunity from the U.S. Department of Education; and his $25,000 challenge matching gift to establish the Robert Schwartz and Alan Daniels Endowment Fund generated an additional $28,370 in endowment matching money from gifts. He giving an additional $25,000 at the 2022 LACC Gala generated a $25,000 matching gift by Milton and Debbie Vera. So, the total of matching money that Sterling’s gifts have generated is now $141,962. Sterling’s gifts of $316,175 plus the matching money his gifts have generated of $141,962 now total $458,137.