Season of Sharing sets historic mark for 25th annual campaign

Great achievements are accomplished through the collective efforts of many individuals contributing their best. From the Pyramids of Giza to the Human Genome Project, many hands and minds made for successful results and, in doing so, altered the future for an untold number of people.

Our community created its own extraordinary feat through collaboration with this year’s 25th Season of Sharing fundraising campaign – and by raising dollars for the time-tested and trusted safety net managed by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to assist neighbors experiencing hardship.

In assisting with rents and mortgages, utilities, child care or transportation, Season of Sharing has stepped forward to support some 53,000 individuals and families since 2000. It has helped them avoid evictions – or helped them avoid making no-win decisions like whether to repair the car that you need for work or to pay the rent.

Our community has been able to connect with families of all ages touched by the generosity of their neighbors through the Herald-Tribune’s poignant profiles, which were published throughout a campaign that began shortly after Hurricane Helene impacted our region in late September 2024.

Susan Tyree, 74, of Bradenton is a home health worker helped by Season of Sharing and Turning Points after Hurricane Milton left her displaced and scrambling for an affordable place to live.

This year’s Season of Sharing soared to historic heights through 2,743 individual gifts that raised $7.2 million. It broke every record established throughout the campaign's 25-year history and each gift received – every dollar given – will be used to help someone in our community experiencing financial hardship.

This could be a neighbor, a friend, the talented cook who feeds restaurant patrons, the reliable health care worker who tends to the infirm, the nurturing child care provider who teaches our youngest students their ABCs.

Many faced dire straits

With a hurricane season like the one we just experienced, in which back-to-back storms left devastated communities and whole neighborhoods buried under sand and floodwater, many were left in dire straits.

Facing a damaged dwelling, a waterlogged vehicle or disruptions in work and child care, many of our neighbors confronted financial dilemmas that threatened their stability.

In a community like Sarasota County, where 41% of residents live at or below the ALICE (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) threshold, too many are at the precipice of economic calamity. A missed paycheck, unexpected medical emergency or urgent car repair could shatter the fragile financial foundation on which many lives are perched.

Cecelia, a single mom who works in a Siesta Key restaurant, had already been set back during Summer 2024 by car repairs when successive hurricanes forced the closure of her restaurant, which caused her to lose more than a month of work. Through the Women's Resource Center, Cecelia was helped by Season of Sharing to cover her rent.

Our community stepped up

Thankfully, this is also a community where neighbors step up to help those in need.

It’s part of our character and DNA.

From an auspicious early beginning with major gifts from The Patterson Foundation, the Baltimore Orioles, the Brian and Sheila Jellison Family Foundation, Eliza and Hugh Culverhouse Jr. and the Bishop-Parker Foundation, the groundswell of support from community members continued to rise through the very end of the campaign on Jan. 31.

Along with The Patterson Foundation’s outright gift this year of $1 million, its $100,000 match on every $500,000 raised by the community meant a total contribution of $2 million this year. That unlimited match, combined with outright gifts, has resulted in a $10.6 million total contribution by The Patterson Foundation since 2010.

Those dollars raised these last few months will be used to assist those in need who were impacted by the storm – and those who may not encounter ripple effects until later in time, which is greatly anticipated.

The network of human service agencies that works with the Community Foundation to deliver dollars to landlords and service providers reports an unprecedented need for help, the absence of which could unravel families and have effects throughout the community.

When Season of Sharing began as a collaboration between the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and the Herald-Tribune 25 years ago, our region was a very different place. A sleepy bedroom town and retirement haven, the Sarasota of 2000 seems an uncomplicated relic compared with the dynamic, nuanced, vibrant and growing community of today.

When the community came together to raise $121,000 during the campaign's first year, it was a major achievement that showcased the compassionate spirit of our hometown. Never could we have imagined that on Season of Sharing’s Silver Anniversary, the people of our community would band together in such a significant way to help ensure their neighbors avoid the dire consequences of missed payments.

During a quarter-century of Season of Sharing, this community has raised $50 million – and counting! – and a sizeable portion of that grand total was raised this year.

In a year of unthinkable loss, our community pulled off an unimaginable triumph.

As we rebound from the hurricane season and continue to wrestle with the challenges of affordability for those who live and work here, there is a lesson from this year’s Season of Sharing: the power we have to create a better community is limitless when we all work together and chip in what we can.

Roxie Jerde is the president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Mark J. Rochester is the executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

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See this story as it originally appeared on Feb. 9, 2025, in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune here.