As a non-profit entity within the University of South Florida, nearly all support for the Herbarium is procured via external funding, which is subject to inevitable fluctuations. Donations help fund the mission of the USF Herbarium and the continuation of the Atlas of Florida Plants website. This support is relied upon to fund student research, field and lab work, and to purchase curatorial supplies and equipment. All donation funds committed to the herbarium will go directly to the USF Herbarium.
Tax-deductible donations can be made two ways: 1) check by mail or 2) online by credit card.
1) To send a check, make it payable to the USF Foundation and mail it to:
Richard P. Wunderlin or Karla Alvarado
Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology
University of South Florida
4202 East Fowler Avenue, ISA 2015
Tampa, FL 33620-5150
2) To use a credit card, go to this link http://usf.edu/ua/FUND?fund=420310 to select the "420310 Cooley Botanical Research Fund". The Cooley Fund honors George Cooley, the founder of the USF Herbarium and close friend of the first USF president, John S. Allen.
Mission: Plant diversity is vital to the management of our resources, including air, water, and soil quality, agriculture, mining, wood and fiber products, land reclamation, recreation, and biodiversity conservation. The herbarium is the richest institutional source of knowledge on plants and fungi, organisms essential to the terrestrial and coastal ecosystems that humans depend on. The mission of the USF Herbarium is to increase knowledge of plant life and macrofungi in Florida and throughout the world, by promoting research, education, and service programs. With a focus on systematics, this goal is accomplished by collecting, preserving, researching, and exhibiting botanical and fungal specimens. The Herbarium staff maintain the Atlas of Florida Plants website, which provides information on the 4,700+ native and naturalized plants in Florida and is a useful tool for environmental management and education for many public agencies, private companies, non-profit organizations, schools, and individuals throughout Florida. The USF Herbarium would not be able to accomplish all of this without outside support from numerous individuals and institutions.