The Southwest Florida Community Foundation understands that working toward a more sustainable future in our region is a powerful tool in efforts to protect and enhance our quality of life. It is also true that global change starts at the local level, magnifying the importance of our success right here in Southwest Florida.
If we want to create a more sustainable region and world, it is the work that happens across Causes, the areas of focus and passion that create community, and sectors within our communities and neighborhoods that will get us there. In other words, the combined investments from generous donors and the collective work of our grantees and partners across Southwest Florida fuels our ability to cultivate regional change for the common good.
A sustainability plan bolstered by outcomes and indicators that are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals provides the framework to organize, fund and understand the impact of our efforts locally, regionally, nationally and even globally. By keeping track of our region’s accomplishments, current projects, and areas for advancement, we are ensuring continuous improvement in the use of our resources, thereby strengthening the commitment of all members of the community and providing an important tool for donors and partners who wish to create positive change in Southwest Florida.
The Foundation works alongside donors, nonprofits, businesses, and community leaders, building upon years of measurable sustainability initiatives to develop a regional comprehensive sustainability plan. With the recognition that one organization cannot achieve community goals on its own, the sustainability planning process is used to understand our collective efforts, successes, areas for improvement, and potential challenges to success.
Behind each of our Causes is a series of outcomes that are used across the country to measure social, economic and environmental impact based on the STAR (Sustainability Tools for Assessing & Rating) Community Rating System + LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) for Cities & Communities Program. We’ve aligned these outcomes to the Sustainable Development Goals to magnify the potential for impact through replicability and the development of evidenced-base practices.
Whatever your passion and interest, we have a Cause for you. Our Causes are the building blocks of what make a sustainable community. Please see the Cause icons for more information on our impact areas and how we hope to affect and measure change.
If you are doing work in or wish to provide funding for these impact areas, we’d love to hear from you.
Lee County strives to be a community of choice – where residents, workforce, visitors, and businesses will choose to live, learn, work, play, and prosper into the future. To achieve this, our community is preparing for challenges of all kinds in hopes of increasing our ability to bounce back and remain successful. The leaders of Lee County identified sustainability as an important tool in becoming a more resilient community.
We believe Southwest Florida’s greatest challenges and opportunities require leadership that spans beyond sectors and jurisdictional boundaries. The Southwest Florida Community Foundation gathers stakeholders motivated by a common purpose, vision, and passion around finding solutions. Significant and last change demands the collective action of government, education, business, philanthropists, nonprofit organizations, and citizens.
Our Donor Services team stands ready to help you with anything you may need at the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. We play a vital role in helping our donors make smart grants, if they would like our assistance. Or, if donors have a special cause already, we stand on the lookout for needs to match their values and giving plan. And for those who know how they want to grant their gifts, then we make sure it happens for them in a timely manner.
Since 2014, we have been working with our nonprofit grantees in a unique learning network called “Tribes.” We have found that it is most effective to provide our nonprofit grantees with more than funding for their programs. Through coaching and group sessions with the nonprofit leaders, the nonprofit networks learn together to achieve together with skills and training to create healthier organizations and collaborative opportunities to benefit their missions and our community as a whole.
