If “time flies when you are having fun,” I am having the time of my life. Mid-November. Yes, it’s already holiday season. A time to count our blessings, spend time with family, and support those with greater needs around us. At this point, many of us are deep into making lists: what to cook, what to buy, and for whom. Lists are great for keeping us organized, but they also reveal what we value most.

Manatee Community Foundation recently launched a most important one: The Giving Gallery, where giving meets greatest needs and showcases nonprofits’ wish lists for donors who want to fulfill them. It’s a living catalog of community priorities including housing, education, family stability, animal welfare, and beyond. Every project featured has been reviewed through our grantmaking process or invited for inclusion, so donors can be confident their gifts are well placed.

The Giving Gallery also creates a space where donors, investors, and partners can come together to champion the same cause – aligning their impact and amplifying the good we can do collectively.

Within days of introducing the Gallery, several requests were fully funded, including a $15,000 gift to Hope Family Services for technology upgrades, gifts to the Housing Empowerment Fund, designed to help local families find secure housing, to Parenting Matters’ operations, and to Manatee Performing Art Center’s new Sara’s Studios capital project. It’s been a joy to watch what can happen when generosity and opportunity meet, and these early successes have confirmed that this simple idea works. People are eager to make a difference when the path to doing so is clear.

One of MCF’s goals is to inspire philanthropy and make it accessible to everyone. The Giving Gallery is one more way we do that. It’s self-serve and constantly updated. It’s open to all. It also helps remove the mystery around giving and shows the difference each person can make in a concrete way. In every sense, it reflects our “why:’ to connect people and resources for a better Manatee.

And as we make our own lists this season, isn’t it the perfect time of year to think about the difference we can make for others? What if this Black Friday, we spent time around the post-Thanksgiving table browsing The Giving Gallery as a family? Giving together unites us, shows our loved ones we can do greater things together, and gets us in the very spirit of the holidays.

One of the most meaningful gifts I ever received was a friend’s donation to my favorite organization in my honor. It was unexpected, and it influenced my own family’s decision in making giving part of our holiday traditions. That moment also reminded me how powerful generosity can be, because it connects people. It turns gratitude into action. The Giving Gallery now gives everyone that same opportunity to make a gift in honor of someone else. And aren’t the best gifts the ones that touch more than one heart?

We talk often at MCF about democratizing philanthropy. Anyone can be a philanthropist, not only those who give through their estates or large funds. The Giving Gallery brings that idea to life. It’s a tool for every resident who wants to help, and for every nonprofit that could use a boost to keep doing good work.

I’m grateful to live in a community where compassion shows up so consistently. The people in this region have always cared for one another in practical, thoughtful ways, and The Giving Gallery makes that care visible. It gives us a shared space to act on the values we hold.

As the holiday season begins, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to explore The Giving Gallery. See what speaks to you and perhaps make a gift in honor of someone you love. I truly believe the future of Manatee County will be shaped not by what we have, but by what we share.

Veronica Thames is the CEO of Manatee Community Foundation.

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