Longboat Key resident donates $2.5 million to Salvation Army

A few weeks ago, a man approached Salvation Army Sarasota seeking a way to afford housing that wouldn’t cost him all of his $1,000 monthly income.

Through the Salvation Army’s Quality of Life by Choice Program, that man was able to find shared housing and save $400 of his wages each month.

The QLife Program was implemented 18 months ago, and thanks to donors like Longboat Key resident Arnold Simonsen, its effects are becoming tangible.

At the first QLife Celebration Luncheon on Nov. 10 at The Francis, the Salvation Army announced Simonsen’s donation of $2.5 million to the organization and its QLife Program. His donation will be dispersed throughout the program’s efforts.

The program’s mission is to use behavioral science to nudge people experiencing homelessness in the direction they were already hoping to move toward.

“What he supported was the framework that helped change the culture of how the Salvation Army serves those experiencing homelessness,” said Major Ethan Frizzell, area commander of the Salvation Army Sarasota.

From Frizzell’s experience, when someone experiencing homelessness is told what to do, they typically decide not to do it. The QLife Program allows those who are homeless to plan out their next steps in the order they want. A house or job isn’t always someone’s first priority, Frizzell said.

Frizzell and Simonsen worked together to decide where the $2.5 million would go. Simonsen, former CEO of Simonsen’s Inc., said the program sounded like a good one. He said he is concerned about the homeless in Sarasota, so making his donation to Salvation Army was easy.

“They are one of the best run charitable organizations in Sarasota,” he said.

Simonsen’s donation, which is called a bundle gift, includes operating funds for the QLife initiative, capital support over the next few years and a bequest. His donation also funds the Quality of Life Center on the Glasser-Schoenbaum Human Services Center and will create funds in various other areas for Salvation Army, Frizzell said.

“Gifts of this size are rare and notable, but encouraging, I think, to the community,” Frizzell said.

When Frizzell and Simonsen first met in 2014, Frizzell knew Simonsen would be a good match to help the QLife Program.

“He wanted to make a significant impact for individuals suffering from homelessness,” Frizzell said. “He wanted to do it in a way that dignified the person and recognized that different people had different needs.”

Frizzell said that if you reduce the days of homelessness you reduce the years, and Simonsen had the courage to support the idea of using behavioral nudges to reduce days of homelessness.

“There is no measure of appreciation that we could share with Mr. Simonsen that is equal to the comfort he has given to those who are now living in their own home,” Frizzell said.