Hannah Edwards, director of Philanthropy and Outreach with the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the foundation.
There’s a lot of philanthropy in the Keys.
Edwards said, “A lot of people don’t really know what a Community Foundation is or does, and it operates kind of similarly to a private foundation or a Family Foundation, in that it is a tax exempt nonprofit. It’s an organization that makes grants to nonprofits in the community. So the difference is that the community foundation is for a specific area, so our Community Foundation is for the Florida Keys, and people in the Florida Keys, and some even from outside the Florida Keys contribute. They donate to us, and we distribute that money to the nonprofits in the Florida Keys. So we do that through our grant making, and we open our grants to the nonprofits every year in the fall, and all the nonprofits in the Florida Keys are welcome to apply for a grant. We distribute as much money as we possibly can within the Keys, and we also see our mission as a connector and a convener of the Keys. We try to connect our donors with projects that interest them so that they can donate in a meaningful way in our community. We try to maximize their dollars, maximize the impact. So until that money goes out to the nonprofits, it’s invested and it’s actually growing, so it’s really a great way to give back. There are a lot of different ways that donors can give through us.”
There have been $36 million in grants distributed since 1996 by the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys.
Edwards said, “We’re one of a few local funders, so we serve the whole Florida Keys. There is a community foundation in the Ocean Reef community, and they serve the Upper Keys and into Homestead in that area. Then there’s also the United Way of Collier and the Keys that does some grant making as well. The three of us funding organizations, team up sometimes to do various projects. We do a nonprofit day in the fall, which is a day for nonprofit professionals in the Keys to get together and meet each other, do a little networking, and we have seminars, different speakers on topics of interest for them. I’ve been attending that day for years when I worked for Habitat for Humanity, and it’s really a great way to meet your peers and to learn. That really encapsulates part of our mission, which is to connect other nonprofits together, because we really encourage collaboration. Sometimes you can see each other as competitors instead of collaborators and the more groups collaborate, the further the resources can go. So we really encourage collaboration, because it just is maximizes the resources for everybody.”
Grants to eight different summer camp programs so far this year have been provided by the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys.
Edwards said, “We definitely support children and education as much as we possibly can. So we noticed, just going through our grants, we supported eight summer camps or eight summer programs this year. That’s really awesome. The programs include the Marathon Community Theater, A Positive Step Monroe County, which has their idle hands Summer Program, which provides work opportunities for teenagers. Pigeon Key summer camp, the Florida Keys Children’s Shelter Summer Camp, Sea Camp, of course, Crane Point Museum and Nature Center, the Florida Keys History and Discovery Center has some great camps and Marine Lab. They are offering scholarships to their camps. So it’s really great to be able to support. I have a 10 year old who takes part in camps, and they get really expensive. So the scholarships are super important, because they make these camps accessible to everybody. Some of these nature focused, ocean focused camps, if there weren’t scholarships, not every child in this beautiful environment that we live in has the chance to get out on the water and in the water and see what our ecosystem has to offer. So this really helps to make that possible.”
People can also leave a real legacy with the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys.
Edwards said, “A lot of our donors who want to make an impact and really want to be involved in their gift, they’ll start what’s called a donor advised fund. So that’s basically just opening an account with us, and we invest their money, and then they can take the money in their fund and make grants to the nonprofits that interest them.”
For more information, click here: https://cffk.org/