16 Apr 2018 CAUSE & EFFECT: April 2018 Issue
April 2018 issue
Who Says It’s Not Easy Being Green?
As we countdown to Earth Day, our foundation team is all about finding little ways that each of us can help save the planet. We have each made a pledge to do something to use less, save more, conserve, give up or volunteer.
So with this, we would like to challenge you to do the same, and we’ve made it easy by sharing some ideas in a poll on our website.
Just click here and tell us 1, 2 or 3 things you will do. We will send you a special SWFL Earth Day sticker and window cling to spread the idea to your friends and family.
It’s not easy being green, but it’s worth it if we all do something.
Also in this issue of Cause & Effect you will find updates on the opening of our Community Impact grants (hint: it’s earlier this year), a program for nonprofit boards coming this fall, and much more…
Wishing you and yours a beautiful spring, and a fond farewell to our seasonal residents until we see you again this fall — we will be in the renovated train station and Collaboratory downtown when you return!
In Gratitude,
Give to the Fund for the Environment of SWFL and we will send you this bracelet that goes with everything…
Pura Vida works with 200+ artisans in Costa Rica, El Salvador and India who can count on a steady income in positive working environments. So when you give, you are not only helping the environment, you are helping to create jobs.
Give to the Environment by clicking here, and we will send you this bracelet right away so you can inspire others to give for Earth Day the SWFL way.
Contributions to the Fund for the Environment of Southwest Florida will be used to grow the endowment fund and a portion will be granted each year from the fund to a nonprofit organization working to enhance the SWFL environment.
This year Keep Lee County Beautiful received a grant to nurture propagules and plant mangroves destroyed by Hurricane Irma as part of their Mangrove Mania project. For more information on recent grants by the Foundation, click here.
CLICK HERE to Become a 2018 Women’s Legacy Fund Contributor
Kimberly Brooks of FM Tech College, Jennifer Hamilton of Gravina, Smith & Matte, Tessa LeSage and Ashley Skalecki of SWFL Community Foundation, Bob McFalls of FPN, Michelle Zech of Lee Health and Sarah Owen of SWFL Community Foundation
COLLABORATORY:
Alternative Spring Break-University of Michigan and FGCU Marieb College and the City of Fort Myers Team Up
he FutureMakers Coalition was recently awarded a $50,000 challenge grant from Florida Philanthropic Network as part of its College Access & Success Initiative (CASI).
The Coalition will use the challenge grant funding to continue to advance regional outcomes and efforts that support the Florida Higher Education Coordination Council’s statewide goal of 55 percent higher education attainment.
The grant was officially awarded this month by FPN President & CEO Bob McFalls after the Coalition raised $50,000 in additional private donations.
The goal of the FutureMakers Coalition is to transform the workforce by increasing the number of Southwest Florida residents with degrees, certificates and other high-quality credentials by the year 2025. For more information, visit www.futuremakerscoalition.com
Register today! Nonprofits boards will be seated together. CLICK HERE
Foundation to Bring Dan Pallotta and His Bolder Board Training to SWFL – register now!
The Southwest Florida Community Foundation is pleased to host renown Speaker, Author and Entrepreneur Dan Pallotta to the SWFL region with his acclaimed training for nonprofit boards. One of TED Talks’ most viewed presenters on “The Way You Look at Charities is Dead Wrong,” Pallotta will be in the Collaboratory on Saturday, November 3 for a daylong seminar specifically for nonprofit board members. Tickets are limited. For more information or reservations, click here.
Couple Establishes $1million Virtual Endowment Fund
Ardent community supporters Richard and Vicki Pitbladdo recently collaborated with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation to establish a virtual $1 million endowment.
“This virtual endowment fund is reflective of the new philanthropy that we are seeing in our community,” said Sarah Owen, Southwest Florida Community Foundation president and CEO. “Through their generous giving, Vicki and Richard get to participate in giving now to help local efforts in very specific ways through the Foundation and at the same time establish the endowed fund for giving in perpetuity later.”
For more information on this type of fund or how to give strategically, click here.
Richard and Vicki Pitbladdo
Grant Cycle to Open June 1st
Nonprofits leaders take note!
The Foundation’s Community Impact Grant cycle will start earlier and be open longer this year. The web portal opens June 1 and will close July 31.
The funding, approximately $550,000, will be awarded six months after the application deadline, so be sure to plan for that in your LOI development.
Mark your calendars now and start thinking about 2019! What will your letter of idea do for our community? For more information, click here.
If you haven’t registered your nonprofit on our website, be sure to do that now here.
GIFT MAKERS featured in Spring print newsletter — read all about it!
We like to say it only takes a minute to change the world and it’s true!
Our network of professional wealth advisors who introduce the idea of philanthropy to their clients in gift and estate planning are a source for some really creative and effective gifts for donors who give through the Foundation to support a variety of causes in the community.
If you missed it, click here to read our most recent print newsletter highlighting these unique charitable gifts.
Professional wealth advisors assembled at the Foundation’s new and renovated space while still under construction to get a sneak peak and celebrate philanthropy together.
The Foundation In the News
BEWARE THE ALLURE OF THE GOLDEN EGG
No doubt many of you are recovering from the recent Easter egg hunting season. Spring is in the air and for weeks leading up to the Easter Bunny’s annual pilgrimage there were a plethora of opportunities to hide and hunt the colorful plastic orbs.
CAUSE & EFFECT: NO GREAT FUTURE IN PLASTICS AFTER ALL, MR. MCGUIRE
as seen in The News-Press
Plastics. This one word is actually ranked number 63 in the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 movie quotations in American Cinema. It appears in the 1967 movie The Graduate, as the uncertain, waylaid recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock is receiving advice on his future from Mr. McGuire a friend of the family: