If you want to know what a community cares about, look at where it directs its generosity. Your local community foundation’s impact report puts those choices on display. At Manatee Community Foundation, this year’s report begins with a figure that makes me pause: 1,156 grants. Behind that number are not simply transactions, but individuals, families, and legacy builders making intentional decisions about the causes and organizations they believe in. I think about the many separate philanthropic decisions that number represents, and the ripple effects of the generosity that fueled them.

Those grants directed more than $6 million toward meaningful charitable work and scholarships. The scale is remarkable. More revealing, though, is what the grants tell us about the needs our donors recognize in our community, and the future they want to help create. The numbers are a measure of dollars, but they are also a measure of trust—donors entrusting their resources to organizations and causes that matter deeply to them.

Our impact report shows where much of that generosity went. Health and Human Services was our largest area of grantmaking, with $2.21 million supporting organizations that address disability services and healthcare, housing, food assistance, and other basic needs. Education accounted for nearly $1.5 million dedicated to educational programs, early learning and childcare, and traditional or vocational scholarships. And behind these categories, the sobering reality: our ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families and neighbors trying to find food and housing security, get the care they need, invest in their children’s education, or invest in themselves by continuing their education.

Grants also supported arts and culture, animal welfare, foster care family support, and civic engagement. That breadth is possible because philanthropy is personal. Donors come to MCF with different values, experiences, and priorities, and they advise on grants that reflect what they are about most. Some are responding to immediate needs, and others are investing in a long-term vision. Together, they’re allowing grantmaking to reach many dimensions of life.

MCF also awarded 73 competitive grants totaling $420,900. This is an important part of our role, but it is only one part of the story. Through a new, simplified grant application process, we partner with nonprofits to learn about the challenges they face in meeting community needs and to support their growth and expansion. These partnerships, along with nonprofits’ direct knowledge of the communities they serve, help us determine where funding can have the greatest impact. Just as importantly, our fundholders are active partners in that impact—using their own charitable priorities and knowledge of the community to recommend where resources should go.

How funding was awarded also tells us something about what nonprofits need as organizations. Program grants often draw the most attention because their purpose is easy to see, but every program depends on the daily work of a stable organization. Among the grants we could classify by request type, more than half of the dollars provided general operating support. This flexible funding helps nonprofits cover everyday costs and adjust when circumstances change. It gives organizations the stability to serve people well, and it shows confidence in the leaders closest to the work. It is the best type of funding we can provide, and we encourage our donors to walk alongside us as well.

I’m especially struck by what the numbers reveal about individual philanthropy. MCF donors recommended 841 grants, totaling $2.73 million. Every one of those recommendations began with an individual or family deciding where they wanted to make a difference. Seeing the full number reminds me how personal philanthropy is, and how much those individual acts can accomplish. MCF provides the structure, expertise, and community knowledge that turns those intentions into action and helps connect that giving spirit with organizations, causes, and projects that can exponentially amplify their impact.

Of course, some needs can’t be planned for. Six disaster resiliency and Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) grants directed more than $325,000 into resiliency efforts. This reminds us of the critical role community foundations like MCF must play to move resources quickly in blue or gray skies.

An impact report may not read like a page-turner, with all its figures and percentages. Look more closely, though, and it tells a story about hundreds of choices that put generosity to work.

When I look at this year’s report, I see MCF’s promises in action:

We Grow Together. We Build On Legacy. We Lift Community.

Every grant is one way we fulfill that promise. Whether a fundholder is making a grant today to address an urgent need, investing in an organization’s future, or creating a legacy that will give for generations, each decision adds to a larger story of generosity and impact. Together, these choices help build a better Manatee—now and forever.

Simone Peterson is the Community Investment Officer of Manatee Community Foundation. 

Every travel decision involves some level of negotiation. Who to bring, what to pack, when to go, and of course, where to go. The same back-and-forth we experience when planning our own vacations is happening behind the scenes as meeting planners evaluate destinations for their next big event. As locals, we may not always notice when a group is in town, but I can assure you, these visitors are a quiet yet powerful force in our local economy.

With each overnight room booked, visitors generate Tourist Development Tax that is reinvested back into our community’s quality of life amenities. But their economic impact hardly stops at check-in.

If you’ve ever attended an out-of-town conference, you know groups are eager to explore their host destination, too – reserving tables at surrounding restaurants, shopping for gifts to bring back home to loved ones, experiencing attractions, and even extending their stay days after their event. Each of those purchases creates sales tax revenue while putting dollars directly into the hands of local businesses and the locals they employ.

Naturally, our tourism marketing and sales team at Visit Sarasota County sees and stewards group business as one of our key audiences. Last year, we collected more than 500 leads from meeting planners, 65 of which we ultimately helped book their events in Sarasota County. Their time in destination, from this audience alone, amounted to $9.7 million in economic impact.

You’ve heard me share before that resting on our laurels is not a winning marketing strategy, especially when public dollars are on the line. That’s why our Sales Team isn’t waiting for the phone to ring, either; they’re out in the field, attending trade shows across the country – and sometimes, the globe – to bring business back home.

This past month, members of our team attended Connect Marketplace with more than 3,000 professionals in the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions industry. Our mobile visitor center, AVA, served as our booth and made a strong impression, as did the locally curated recommendations from our attending hotel partners.

Which came in handy as we then welcomed a select group of those planners back to Sarasota County, where they toured properties on Lido Key, Longboat Key, and Downtown Sarasota, engaged with exhibits at The Ringling, and caught a Siesta Key sunset. I’m told there was even a personal concert from our Sales Manager, Shantel Norman, at The Gator Club one evening!

This is the kind of encompassing yet surprising approach we’re going for; so much so, we’ve bottled it up in a brand we call “Business as Unusual,” with visuals curated by local artist Lipstick Lex. Since launching this brand last year, we’ve themed our booths and giveaways accordingly, and it’s resonated, underscoring from the get-go our flexible venues with custom meeting incentives, so groups can feel at ease and expect a little surprise during their stay.

And next month, our team and several partners will do it all again as they head to Las Vegas for IMEX, the largest trade show in the world for the business events industry, and to London for Florida Huddle UK & Ireland, hosted by VISIT FLORIDA for travel trade, media, and tour operators.

Globally, locally, and everywhere in between, our team is making the case for Sarasota County. Because every travel decision is ultimately a choice and our task is to keep our destination in the conversation.

Erin Duggan is President & CEO of Visit Sarasota County. 

Visit Sarasota County at Connect Marketplace. Provided photo.

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At New College of Florida, individualized education and intellectual curiosity define the student experience. Students are encouraged to explore, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and ultimately create an academic path that reflects who they are and where they hope to go. That freedom is one of the strengths of a New College education. But figuring out what comes next can still feel overwhelming.

Students arrive on campus with ambition, curiosity, and enormous potential. What they may not yet have is a clear understanding of how their interests can translate into a career or how the skills they are developing in the classroom connect to opportunities beyond campus. That is where mentorship can make a tremendous difference.

Through the Mighty Banyan Mentorship Program, New College students develop relationships with professionals who can help them explore those possibilities. Designed as a yearlong experience for second-year and transfer students, the program begins with a credit-bearing fall course, Designing Your Life: Career Exploration and Professional Development for the College Student.

Grounded in design thinking, the course encourages students to approach their futures with curiosity. Rather than expecting them to choose a career and follow a prescribed path, students explore their interests, understand their values, consider different possibilities, and take action to discover what fits.

Mentorship is central to that exploration.

Students-are intentionally matched based on shared academic, professional, and career interests with mentors who include Sarasota-area business and community leaders, New College alumni, faculty, and professional staff. These relationships provide students with something that cannot always be replicated in a classroom: a trusted person willing to share experiences, answer questions, provide perspective, make connections, and help a student see possibilities they may not have considered.

The relationship continues into the spring semester as students pursue internships and other hands-on experiences. They have an opportunity to experience professional environments, test potential career paths, build new skills, and discover both what interests them and what does not. Importantly, much of this exploration happens right here in our community. Through relationships with organizations such as Enterprise Mobility, Goodwill Industries Manasota, the City of Sarasota, and many others, New College students are developing professional connections while becoming more connected to Sarasota and the surrounding region.

When local professionals invest their time in a student, they are doing more than providing career advice. They are introducing that student to a community. They help students understand the opportunities that exist here, the challenges local organizations are working to solve, and the many ways their talents can contribute.

At the same time, our community gets to know New College students as emerging scientists, educators, economists, entrepreneurs, public servants, artists, researchers, and professionals. Mentorship also helps students develop something that can be difficult to teach in a classroom: confidence.

With the encouragement of a mentor, students become more comfortable asking questions, making connections, seeking opportunities, and trying something new. They pursue internships, attend community events, build professional networks, and begin imagining themselves not only as future professionals but as members of the broader Sarasota community.

Over time, those individual relationships create a larger impact. Students gain clarity, experience, and a stronger sense of what they want their futures to look like. Local organizations meet talented young people who bring fresh perspectives, intellectual curiosity, and energy. And Sarasota develops deeper connections with students who may ultimately choose to build their careers and their lives here.

Participation in the Mighty Banyan Mentorship Program has more than doubled in recent years, but numbers tell only part of the story. The real impact can be seen when a student discovers a career they had never considered, walks into an internship with greater confidence, or realizes that someone is genuinely invested in their success.

Mentorship at New College is not about telling students which path to take. It is about giving them the relationships, experiences, and confidence to discover that path for themselves. And when our alumni, faculty, staff, business leaders, and community partners choose to be part of that journey, they are doing more than mentoring a student. They are helping develop the people who will shape the future of our community.

Ellie Mobley is an Assistant Director and Career Coach at the New College of Florida. 

Provided photo.

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