Though Bea Arthur’s life was sadly coming to an end earlier this year, it’s clear that her generosity lived on.

The Golden Girls actress, who died in April, reportedly included a $300,000 donation to New York’s Ali Forney Center, an organization supporting homeless lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered youth, in her will, leaving center Executive Director Carl Siciliano overwhelmed by her kindness. He had been struggling to keep the shelter doors open.

“The last year and a half, since the economic crisis started, it’s been really hard to keep this program going,” Siciliano tells CNN. “A lot of the foundation and corporate money that we used to get has dried up, and we’ve been growing. Every day, we have about 125 kids a night waiting to get into our housing. For months, I’ve been really sweating to make each payroll, and we’re usually a month or two behind on our rent, and there have been times when I was afraid that I wasn’t going to hold it together. That kind of terror of [trying to] keep this thing going has come to an end for now with this extraordinary generosity.”

Of Bea’s donation, he says: “To have her choose to shine that kind of light on us was remarkable. She became an advocate for the issue; she said she would do anything that she could to help these kids.”