07 Feb 2020 Southwest Florida Community Foundation grants over $700,000 to local nonprofits in annual Community Impact Grants
The Southwest Florida Community Foundation has awarded $744,377.22 to 23 nonprofits serving the Southwest Florida region (Charlotte, Lee, Hendry, Glades and Collier counties). The Foundation’s annual Community Impact Grants program focuses on established and new programs designed to improve the quality of life in Southwest Florida with a lens on sustainability and equity. The local nonprofit grantees received grant funding from the Foundation’s Field of Interest funds bequeathed to the Foundation by donors in estate plans, as well as provided by current individual and corporate donors in attendance at Foundation’s Compassionate Shark Tank, a step in the grants process.
The nonprofits include: Brighter Bites, Calusa Waterkeeper, Charity for Change, Inc., Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Equality Florida Institute, Family Initiative Incorporated, Florida Baptist Children’s Homes Inc., Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County, Florida Gulf Coast University (Three Separate Grants), Florida Lions Eye Clinic, Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida, Healthy Start Coalition of SWFL, Inc., Lee County Alliance for the Arts, Inc, Legal Aid Service of Collier County, Massachusetts General Hospital, Naples Senior Center at JFCS, P.A.W.S. Lee County, Inc., Residential Options of Florida, Inc., Sally J. Pimentel Deaf & Hard of Hearing Center, Sanibel Sea School, Inc, and SJC Boxing Club, Inc.
“We are grateful to our donors and those who have made these grants possible, many of whom are generous people who have left resources in their will or estate because they cared deeply about the region and want to be certain that nonprofits serving their causes have the resources they need to create change and opportunity in Southwest Florida,” said Sarah Owen, Southwest Florida Community Foundation president and CEO. “We can’t wait to begin working with this diverse group of regional nonprofits through our 2020 Community Impact Grant Tribe.”
Some examples of the regional funding and support include:
- A program that helps create communityof health through fresh food
- A plan to increase public and medical community engagement on health threats from Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs)
- A project to help school districts promote best practices, policies, and procedures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students, a critically underserved, vulnerable population
- To expand an evidenced-based approach to support children & adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- To support environmental stewardship
- To provide care to children who are abused, abandoned or neglected with care through a Foster Care program
- To support school-based sealant delivery programs to increase the prevalence of dental sealants among children from low-income families and reduce racial and income disparities in sealant placement among elementary school children
- A program to enable the use of an environmentally benign and economically viable membrane process to remove CO2 from shifted syngas in IGCC power plants and at the same time meet the Department of Energy targets for CO2 capture
- A program that teaches students, elementary to college, important information about the endangered Florida panther and its habitat
- A program to enhance the well-being of the residents in Immokalee, Florida by increasing their health knowledge levels and promoting self-management and care among those with existing physical health condition
- Fund a program for medications, equipment and disposable supplies for patient exams and surgeries, an ophthalmologist and transportation for low income populations
- A program that plans to provide more than 800 food kits to feed more than 2,000 individuals with more than 17,518 pounds of food, the equivalent of 14,600 meals
- A program that contracts with 2 prenatal medical care offices to ensure pregnant women in Hendry and Glades Counties have access to prenatal care
- A program for aspiring actors of color in theatre education, provides performance opportunities and a platform to convene dialogue on social issues that challenge our community through creative, artistic expression.
- To support high impact, free legal services relating to immigration status for individuals not born in this country, or their family members, so that they can remain and prosper in the U.S
- To support the Southwest Florida Warrior Health and Fitness Program that is FREE to participants, three-month program for up to 80 Southwest Florida Veterans, annually.
- Funding to support increasing the capacity of our Dementia Respite Support Program
- To support empowering people with disabilities to live in the community by creating supported living homes
- To fund a program that major businesses and common career fields are equipped to communicate with the deaf through basic sign language that corresponds to their particular business
- To construct a mobile science laboratory that will expose students to marine science and technology, independent of their location
- To support an after-school boxing and mentoring program for youth in Southwest Florida
To review the details of the grants, please visit floridacommunity.com/portfolio/community-impact-grant/
The programs being awarded represent the Foundation’s cause areas that map outcomes and indicators that are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provides the framework to organize, fund and understand the impact of our efforts locally, regionally, nationally and even globally. For more information on our work in Sustainability, please visit: https://floridacommunity.com/what-we-do/.
About the Southwest Florida Community Foundation
The Southwest Florida Community Foundation, founded in 1976, cultivates regional change for the common good through collective leadership, social innovation and philanthropy to address the evolving community needs in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Foundation partners with individuals, families and corporations who have created more than 400 philanthropic funds. Thanks to them, the Foundation invested $7.7 million in grants and programs to the community. With assets of $134.9 million, it has provided $85 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves since inception. The Foundation is the backbone organization for the regional FutureMakers Coalition and Lee County’s Sustainability Plan. The Southwest Florida Community Foundation’s regional headquarters are now located in the historic ACL Train Depot at Collaboratory in downtown Fort Myers, with a satellite office located in LaBelle (Hendry County). For more information, call 239-274-5900 or visit www.floridacommunity.com
