United in Positive Giving

Spring is the season of hope, when the natural world, dormant in many areas, comes to life. Buds become blossoms, seeds become sprouts, parched grass perks up, and vitality is visible. This spring has been a season of hope for me, personally, for a few reasons.

The first was Sarasota Magazine’s UNITY Awards celebration, which recognizes inspiring leaders in our community who are committed to helping others. This was the 15th year for the awards, and our foundation has been a longtime supporter of this special program that shines the spotlight on people who give voice and agency to others. Some of the people who were recognized would be familiar to many of you, and others may be new to readers, which adds the unexpected to learning about these individuals and how they spend their time giving to others. (Be sure to read about this year’s honorees.)

Those noted provide great hope, as their commitment to making our region a better home to the many who live here is rooted in a vision of possibility. But while they demonstrate extraordinary dedication to our community, we at the Community Foundation know from working with hundreds of nonprofits that the resolve to make our community great is shared by many. These nonprofits and so many generous people who call our community home commit to safeguarding our values and enhancing quality of life for all—it's part of the fabric of our community.

That belief that it takes everyone to make a difference is one I hope you’ve heard me share before. It is key to our values that guide us each day, and one that is core to the Giving Challenge, the 24-hour online giving day our foundation has hosted since 2012.

We announced in April that our long-running Giving Challenge will take place again next year – April 15-16, 2026 – and in doing so offer a way for our nonprofit partners to raise unlimited, general-operating support.

Over nine challenges this community has come together to raise more than $92 million through these online giving days. Along with our partners at The Patterson Foundation, which once again will match all individual gifts up to $100 without a cap, we are incredibly hopeful this community will step up to support the causes that strengthen our community.

Our nonprofit community is made up of caring, dedicated individuals who enhance our quality of life. This important sector is being confronted with funding and philosophical trials that are sure to have long-running impacts. While the totality of those impacts is still unknown, rather than wait and see, we are committing our vital support through this empowering event.

Please mark the date now on your calendars. While the future is always unknown, we can chart our own course on how we arrive there. I am confident that this community will once again come together to create transformative giving for overall community good.

We all have an opportunity to do our part to impact another person, a cause, a community. It is in this notion—each of us can be the one—that the greatest hope for our community exists.