Who knows what tomorrow will bring? A Category 5 hurricane, emerging drug epidemic, mass casualty event. Did anyone see the novel coronavirus pandemic coming around the corner?
That was the question Community Foundation President/CEO Eileen Connolly-Keesler asked in 2017 when she and a county official brought several partners together to discuss how local leaders should prepare philanthropically for a natural or human-made disaster. Two weeks later, Hurricane Irma roared ashore at Marco Island on September 10, and Collier Comes Together was ready to respond with emergency relief funds. Being at the ready to react quickly to Irma’s widespread disruption was a valuable lesson.
“We don’t know what the next crisis will be,” says Connolly-Keesler. “But when it comes up, you can’t move fast enough. And we know challenges are going to continue to crop up—they won’t just stop.” Indeed, it proved to be a warm-up. The Community Foundation has established four emergency Collier Comes Together relief funds totaling $3.9 million in the past four years:
- 2017 - Hurricane Irma: $2,202,113
- 2018 - Red Tide: $82,500
- 2020 - Golden Gate Wildfires: $20,200
- 2020 - Coronavirus Relief: $1,644,000
Connolly-Keesler often says that the Community Foundation is the community’s philanthropic first responder and convener—spearheading the charge through collaboration and leadership since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The Community Foundation hastened its trustees to establish the latest Collier Comes Together Fund. They also issued a matching grant challenge that provided NCH Healthcare System with more than $273,000 for protective gear and sanitizing robots in the pandemic’s earliest days.
Then it collaborated with Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF), Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation (RMSFF), and the United Way of Collier and the Keys to identify priority needs, streamline assistance, and reduce duplication. They became known locally as the Philanthropic Four and met weekly through the end of the year to continue meeting the community’s greatest needs.
The Community Foundation partnered with NCEF and RMSFF to create an application to serve the community’s most vulnerable populations. The free Collier CARES (Community Application for Resources and Emergency Services) is a bilingual mobile and web app (CollierCares.org) that connects residents in need with essential resources and services. It launched in April.
The Foundation also managed $10.5 million in public funding. It was designated to distribute $5.5 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding in Collier County and another $5 million in tightly restricted American Rescue Plan Act funds. The Foundation took this course of action using its cash reserves to expedite funding to eligible food banks and food pantries while simplifying the application process.
With a visionary lens polished through past experiences, the Foundation is leading the charge to create a $2.5 million Community Crisis and Disaster Relief Fund as part of its new Your passion. Your Collier. capital campaign. The fund is unrestricted to enable the Community Foundation board to act at a moment’s notice for sudden disasters that lead to mass job losses, shuttered businesses, medical-system strains, or mass casualties.
The $15.5 million Your passion. Your Collier. campaign directly tackles six fields of significant concern identified in a comprehensive community survey: mental health and substance abuse, housing and hunger, education and employment, seniors and veterans, environment and accessibility, and crisis and disaster relief. We are living in unprecedented times, but the Foundation began planning Your passion. Your Collier. and its Community Crisis and Disaster Relief Fund long before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has unquestionably laid bare pressing issues in this community, including food insecurity, affordable housing, education, legal protections for low-income families, and senior isolation.
Why wouldn’t an affluent coastal community—vulnerable to hurricanes, red tide, wildfires, global pandemics, and who knows what else—plan ahead? “What we need is money set aside so we can react to it on Day 1 and not Day 30,” Connolly-Keesler says.
Learn more about the Community Foundation of Collier County at CFCollier.org or call 239.649.5000 to meet with the CFCC team to learn how to design a philanthropic plan that achieves your unique charitable priorities.
Nonprofit Leaders Express Gratitude for Community Foundation Support
The Community Foundation of Collier County’s “experience, oversight, care, and support has been instrumental in our ability to meet the demands we have faced. To put it simply, they have been role-model ‘hunger heroes’ that we are proud to work together with to wipe out hunger.” — Donald Pecora, Our Daily Bread donor relations and communications manager
“With great and growing needs in Collier, it takes a working partnership of effective nonprofits teamed with forward-thinking and compassionate philanthropists. The Community Foundation is a wonderful conduit to match these groups together.” — Scott Burgess, David Lawrence Centers for Behavioral Health
“We’ve got our hands full as a community.” — Michael Overway, Hunger & Homeless Coalition of Collier County
“Many of our seniors are dealing with isolation and loneliness and lack access to adequate resources. Increased partnership and additional funding from the Community Foundation to support these services are critical in enhancing the quality of life of older adults in our community.” — Tatiana Fortune, Golden Gate Senior Center