Community Foundation of Sarasota County Propels Reach With Staff Appointments, Promotions

Appointments strengthen the foundation’s position as a leader in innovative and thoughtful philanthropy

SARASOTA, FL – As the Community Foundation of Sarasota County strives to support the vital work of local nonprofit organizations through thoughtful charitable giving, its four most recently appointed staff team members are key to strategic initiatives to support community impact powered by philanthropy.

The appointments of Michelle Croft, Sarah Firstenberger, and Scott Henderson as directors to lead respective department initiatives, and the addition of Autumn Steiner as a Philanthropic Advisor, have expanded the foundation’s capacity for understanding the community and responding to its most pressing challenges.

Michelle Croft is the Director of Community Impact at the foundation. In this role, Croft oversees the Suncoast Disaster Recovery fund and other grantmaking and scholarships, working closely with nonprofit partners. Croft was initially hired as a consultant to consult on grantmaking for the Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund in 2022 for this complex and groundbreaking fund focused on long-term hurricane recovery.

Earlier this year, Sarah Firstenberger was promoted to Director of Marketing and Events to work alongside the Vice President of Strategy and Communications in overseeing the foundation’s multipronged marketing, communications, and events strategies. Firstenberger joined the foundation in January 2022 as Events Manager. Her new role expands her responsibilities to tracking effectiveness of foundation communications and orchestrating events to promote awareness and engage both existing audiences and prospects.

Scott Henderson, Director of Community Insights, leads the foundation’s development and implementation of approaches to share data trends and analysis to inform grantmaking and giving strategies.

Since joining the foundation in January 2024, Henderson has been key to weaving community data into the foundation’s strategic framework and he is primarily responsible for the foundation’s Community Indicators Dashboard —a dynamic database of indicators of a community well-being, including population, the environment, the economy, housing, education and health—to stakeholders including policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and other community funders.

Autumn Steiner joined the foundation in December 2024 as a Philanthropic Advisor. In this role, Steiner works with individual donors to help them achieve their philanthropic goals through impact investments. Steiner has been in the region 13 years and came to the foundation after an eight-year tenure at Humane Society of Sarasota County, most recently in the role of Senior Director of Philanthropy.

“These talented and dedicated leaders will help cement our foundation’s standing as a trusted and reliable resource for those caring people who want to help make our community a place where everyone can achieve their potential,” said Roxie Jerde, President and CEO of the Community Foundation. “It is an honor to work alongside people whose expertise will help propel our foundation forward and help ensure a bright future for our community.”

The Community Foundation of Sarasota County, celebrating its 45^th anniversary this year, has long been the standard bearer for meaningful and effective philanthropy in the region. Having invested more than $500 million in grants and scholarships since its inception in 1979, the Community Foundation works with donors to make informed decisions on charitable giving that lead to positive community outcomes.

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About the Community Foundation of Sarasota County: The Community Foundation of Sarasota County is a public charity founded in 1979 by the Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council as a resource for caring individuals and the causes they support, enabling them to make a charitable impact on the community. With assets of $489 million in more than 1,580 charitable funds, the Community Foundation awarded grants and scholarships totaling $40 million dollars last year in the areas of education, the arts, health and human services, civic engagement, animal welfare and the environment. Since its founding, the Community Foundation has been able to grant more than $435.8 million to area nonprofit organizations in our community thanks to the generosity of charitable individuals, families, and businesses. For more information, visit www.CFSarasota.org or call (941) 955-3000.