WSU revises plans for group; New nonprofit organization would manageHannelore Sudermann Staff writer In a special telephone meeting Monday morning, Washington State University regents heard about a revised version of a new private nonprofit organization to manage real estate assets.Initially called the WSU Real Estate Foundation, the new 501(C3) nonprofit organization designed to hold and manage gifts of property to WSU was approved unanimously by the regents in January.But news of the WSU Real Estate Foundation alarmed a few of the school's regents and donors who heard about it for the first time when it was reported in The Spokesman-Review in February, school officials said.Currently, the WSU Foundation, also a 501(C3) organization, handles nearly all gifts to the university, including cash, stocks, bonds and real estate.Under the new plan, a separate foundation under separate leadership and managed out of WSU's Office of Business Affairs could handle real estate gifts, said WSU President V. Lane Rawlins.While the WSU Foundation usually liquidates donated property, the new organization's primary purpose is to manage property that WSU doesn't just want to sell, Rawlins said in the video conference call from Seattle."To avoid confusion, we ought not to call this a foundation," he said.The purpose of the WSU Foundation is fund raising and using the money to benefit the university, said Rawlins. In contrast, the new real estate arm "is not for fund raising," he said. It could be used instead for managing, buying and selling assets on behalf of the university.Because of the concerns raised this past winter, Rawlins delayed formally starting the organization for several months. "I asked that it be held ...
