In 1984, a few charitably minded Broward County residents decided to team up to do more for the community they loved. That simple idea launched what would become the Community Foundation of Broward.
Through the years, more and more individuals, families and organizations have partnered with the Community Foundation to be more strategic and impactful with their giving. By creating charitable funds at the Foundation, our “fundholders” ensure ongoing support for their charitable passions, enlist our expertise to find innovative ways to make a difference and amplify their impact through our ability to pool resources.
Since our founding forty years ago, the more than 570 charitable funds established at the Community Foundation have provided $195 million in support for: student achievement, the arts, career readiness, seniors in need, HIV/AIDS prevention, equity and social justice, environmental resilience, health care, affordable housing, disaster relief, empowering nonprofits and so much more.
Thanks to the power of endowment and the generosity of our fundholders, the Community Foundation is just getting started! Here’s a look back at how our fundholders make it all possible.
First Fundholder: Yolanda Maurer
When Ohio transplants Libby and Jack Deinhardt set out to launch Broward’s new Community Foundation, they turned to a local leader – whose name and face were familiar to their adopted home – to create the first charitable fund at the Foundation.
With a $5,000 donation, longtime Fort Lauderdale newspaper columnist, society editor and magazine publisher Yolanda Maurer became the Community Foundation’s first “fundholder” – setting an example that hundreds of individuals, families and organizations would follow in order to become more strategic and impactful with their giving.
In addition to creating a charitable fund that provided support for helping people overcome homelessness, Yolanda led the “Foundation Council” – a group of more than two dozen Foundation supporters who spread the word about the fledgling organization and raised money to help cover administrative costs.
Slowly but surely, their message took hold. In the first year, the Foundation awarded $7,000 in grants. Three years later, the Foundation awarded its first grants from unrestricted funds – $14,700 total to support the work of 13 front-line nonprofits. By 1988, the Foundation’s assets – our grantmaking muscle – exceeded $1 million.
Today, the Foundation’s assets have reached $300 million and this past fiscal year we set an annual grantmaking record with $20 million invested in opportunities to transform lives and make Broward a better place to call home. It’s all thanks to fundholders, like Yolanda, who partner with us to shape a brighter future.
The Founders Club
During its first decade, the Foundation launched “The Founders Club” to give special recognition to philanthropists who helped us build momentum for growing Broward’s endowed resources. The Founders Club included the “Founding Donors” – who created endowed charitable funds of $25,000 or more – and the “Founding Benefactors” – who created endowed charitable funds of $100,000 or more.
Early members of The Founders Club include civic leader Blanche Buck, who created an endowed charitable fund to provide ongoing support for seniors and the disabled. Citizens and Southern Bank created an endowment to support people in need. Frederick and Mary Ruffner’s endowed fund supports after-school programs, the Museum of Discovery and Science and more. Leonard and Sally Robbins created an endowed fund that supports arts programs, education, cancer patients and more. And in addition to jump-starting Broward’s movement to grow endowed resources, Libby and Jack Deinhardt led by example and created endowed charitable funds ensuring they would forever be a part of The Founders Club.
In 1989, Wayne and Marti Huizenga showed their belief in the Community Foundation by becoming our first Founding Benefactors. Today, one of the charitable funds they created – the endowed Huizenga Fund For Children – provides grants to support Junior Achievement of South Florida, Do Good 4-1, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, local schools and more. “It’s just a great way to give,” Marti Huizenga said in 2014, while hosting the Community Foundation’s 30th anniversary at her home.
Click here to see a list of The Founders Club.
Mary Porter’s $43 Million Legacy Gift
Mary Porter did much more than make Community Foundation of Broward history in 2012, when her $43 million bequest became our largest gift ever.
By partnering with the Community Foundation to safeguard and manage her estate gift, Mary ensured her endowed support would transform lives in the community she loved for generations to come.
Today, kids at the new L.A. Lee YMCA/Mizell Community Center on Sistrunk Boulevard can learn to swim, take a class or play basketball in a safe, nurturing place, thanks to Mary’s gift.
Hardworking families moving into affordably priced homes at Habitat for Humanity’s new neighborhood in Pompano Beach are becoming first-time homeowners, thanks to Mary’s visionary help.
And in Sunrise, adults with special needs are launching new culinary careers, thanks to skills they are learning in a teaching kitchen at Arc Broward that Mary’s support made possible.
These are just a few examples of the powerful results of Mary’s BOLD estate gift, which launched several endowed charitable funds at the Community Foundation and ensured her ability to help her adopted home would never end.
Mary Porter was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Her father, Dr. J. Elmer Porter, was a prominent physician and successful businessman who helped build the town’s first hospital. He and Mary’s mother, Annilla Porter, instilled a commitment to philanthropy that Mary brought with her when she moved to Florida and made Broward her home.
Mary was a longtime supporter of the arts whose charitable giving also helped at-risk teens and struggling families. Mary wanted her giving to go on long after she was gone, so she joined the Community Foundation’s Legacy Society – philanthropists who shape a brighter future by committing to estate gifts that will launch endowed funds at the Foundation.
Mary trusted the Community Foundation to become her “eyes and ears” and carry on her legacy of community support through the endowed charitable funds launched by her historic gift. One of her endowed funds, the Mary N. Porter Legacy Fund, established a dedicated source of support for construction, renovations and other major capital projects that make life better for Broward residents.
Now, on Mary’s behalf, the Community Foundation finds innovative opportunities for her support to make a lasting difference. We go on site visits and meet with project planners to find out how it will impact lives and enrich the community. After our Board approves a grant, we follow up to make sure recipients meet their commitments. Through careful investment, we shepherd and grow Mary’s endowed funds so they can fuel future grants and increase Mary’s impact, for generations to come.
All across Broward, you can see Mary’s name on the buildings, parks and other community facilities her support makes possible. Because of Mary’s endowed gift to the Community Foundation, her legacy of BOLD impact will go on forever.
Legacy Society
Mary Porter’s BOLD gift is a shining example of the impact of estate gifts.
In 2000, we created the Legacy Society to say “thank you” today to the philanthropists who shape a brighter tomorrow by committing to an estate gift to the Community Foundation.
Each year, we honor these philanthropists at our Legacy Society Luncheon and we invite them to other special events. Their future gifts launch endowed charitable funds at the Foundation, so during their lifetime we work with Legacy Society members to create specialized plans for their bequests to support their charitable priorities forever.
The Legacy Society began 24 years ago with 19 members pledging $2 million in future gifts to the Community Foundation. Today, our Legacy Society includes 180 members who have pledged $400+ million in planned gifts.
“I wanted the vision of the Community Foundation – for good, forever – to continue past my lifetime. It’s not a one-time gift, it’s a forever gift.” – Arlene Pecora, a Legacy Society member, Fundholder and former Board Member.
Click here to earn more about the Legacy Society.
‘Community Builders’ Create Enduring Impact
“Community Builders” are fundholders at the Community Foundation who take their philanthropy to the next level by partnering with us to create endowed charitable funds of $1 million or more.
Community Builders transform Broward by creating permanent sources of support to tackle big challenges, fuel innovation and champion causes important to them. Through the power of endowment, our Community Builders ensure that their impact will never end.
Community Builder gifts, totaling more than $150 million, account for about half of the Community Foundation’s assets – our grantmaking muscle.
“From the start, the Community Foundation has championed endowed giving as the best way to create sustainable, permanent philanthropic support to tackle Broward’s big issues and invest in a brighter future,” said Community Foundation President/CEO Jennifer O’Flannery Anderson, Ph.D. “Thanks to the bold commitment of our Community Builders, we can forever provide support for hardworking families, for the arts, for isolated seniors, for the environment and for all the things that we don’t even yet know will come to the surface in the future.”
Jim and Jan Moran were among the first fundholders to become Community Builders. Their gifts to the Community Foundation created numerous charitable funds, including the endowed Jan Moran Unrestricted Fund, which today provides support for Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, JAFCO Children’s Ability Center, the Museum of Discovery and Science and more.
“Endowment is essential to any thriving community,” Jan Moran said in the Community Foundation’s 2003 Annual Report. “It’s insurance for the future and an ideal means of protecting a donor’s intent, in perpetuity.”
Today we have grown to 60 Community Builders, including our newest Community Builders:
- Lesley Mitchell Jones – whose three endowed funds tackle pressing community challenges, help seniors in need and support organizations she cares about deeply.
- Burnadette Norris-Weeks and Aaron Weeks – whose endowed fund ensures permanent support for promoting racial justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Dixie Wheeler – whose estate gift launched an endowed scholarship fund that will empower generations of students to achieve success.
They join Community Builders such as Cathy and James Donnelly, who created endowed support for tackling critical community needs such as food insecurity and mental health. And Andrew Wurtele, whose endowed fund supports young people, the arts and the environment. Community Builder Pat Owen’s endowed fund provides support for helping people overcome homelessness and other struggles, through the nonprofit she created - Second Chance Society. Our Founders Libby and Jack Deinhardt are Community Builders as is Mary Porter whose
$43 million bequest to the Community Foundation was our largest ever gift.
These are just a few examples of the Community Builders whose endowed support shapes a brighter future for Broward. They come from different walks of life and have a variety of charitable passions, yet our Community Builders are connected by their commitment to ensure there is sustainable philanthropic support for the community they love – today and always.
“The generosity of these Community Builders is just unmatched, unrivaled,” said Kathy Eggleston, former Foundation Board Member. “They are going to do good forever.”
Click here to learn more about all of our Community Builders.
Endowment Shapes Bright Future
The Community Foundation’s 40th anniversary is much more than a celebration of past achievements.
We set 2024 as the target of a BOLD movement to build endowment and grow philanthropic resources to help tackle our fast-growing community’s needs for generations to come.
Back in 2018 we announced the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign – our ambitious effort to partner with philanthropists who believe in giving back to ensure Broward can take care of itself today and in the future.
They do it by adding to or creating charitable funds at the Community Foundation or committing to planned gifts that will fuel enduring impact for the community they love.
Now in its final year, the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign has raised more than $400 million in new and planned gifts! Already, this exciting campaign has helped us grow to 571 charitable funds, add more than 50 planned estate gifts and reach 60 Community Builders – philanthropists who partner with us to create endowed charitable funds of $1 million or more.
Thank you to everyone who supported the campaign. We are overwhelmed with how the people of Broward have embraced our “BE BOLD” movement. Each year – even amid the historic health and economic crisis of a pandemic – more and more doers and visionaries in our community stepped up to invest in a brighter future.
While the campaign will reach the finish line in December, the “BE BOLD” spirit of the Community Foundation will never fade. Our careful investment of the endowed dollars raised today and the gifts secured for the future will generate millions in grantmaking support each year to make life better in Broward.
Click here to learn more about the power of endowment.
“What a great way to have your wishes continue forever … We have worked our whole lives supporting the community. I love that our work will continue forever through the Community Foundation.” – Cathy Donnelly, who along with her husband James Donnelly, former Board Chair, created an endowed fund and became Community Builders as part of the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign.
To find out how you can create a legacy of BOLD impact by partnering with the Community Foundation of Broward for your philanthropy, contact Vice President Kelly Marmol at kmarmol@cfbroward.org or 954-761-9503.
