The Community Foundation of Broward has launched its boldest effort yet to ensure there will be help forever to tackle Broward’s biggest challenges.
The BE BOLD Leadership Campaign seeks to raise $500 million by the Community Foundation’s 40th anniversary in 2024. To do it, the campaign aims to grow the ranks of local leaders committed to building an endowment that ensures a better future for Broward.
Because endowed charitable Funds can grow through investments, the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign will mean more forever-help for schools, the elderly, the arts, cancer research, the environment and all the issues that matter most to Broward’s future.
With a population larger than 13 states – and still growing – Broward’s philanthropic resources are falling short of community needs. Foundation Funds last year awarded a record $11 million in grants. But because of growing demand, more than 70 percent of requests went unsupported.
When completed, the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign will put $35 million a year into the community to help more of the “lives that need changing,” said James Donnelly, co-chair of the Foundation’s BE BOLD Leadership Campaign Committee.
“Broward is a community at a crossroads,” said Donnelly, a Foundation Board member and Fundholder. “We can continue down the same path, cross our fingers, make a wish and hope that government will swoop in and fix things. Or we can choose where we go next as a community – we can create a new path, a bold path.”
The BE BOLD Leadership Campaign is off to a bold start, with $85 million already raised toward the $500 million goal.
“It’s an amazing start, but we have a long way to go,” Donnelly said. “Now is the time to be bold.”
Donnelly announced the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign at the Nov. 8 celebration of the Foundation’s two newest Community Builders, the Hudson Family and Jon and Elaine Krupnick.
Community Builders are bold visionaries and doers who establish endowed charitable Funds of $1 million or more. The Hudsons and Krupnicks became our first new Community Builders under the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign – an example of impactful giving they hope others will follow.
The Krupnicks are pioneers as well as Community Builders. They have been with the Foundation from its start. Funds they established through the years help provide a safety net for children leaving foster care, remove legal barriers for women in crisis and make Broward a mecca for the arts. The newly established Elaine Krupnick Fund for the Arts takes them over the million-dollar threshold to qualify as Community Builders.
Jon Krupnick said long-ago advice from fellow attorney Leonard Robbins helped inspire their philanthropy, which now grows as Community Builders.
“He said, ‘What you give is the rent you pay to the community that has been so generous to you,’” Jon Krupnick said. “This is a way of saying thank you to this community. The only reason to do it publicly is to encourage others who are in a position now… to make serious donations.”
For the Hudsons, a $5 million endowment to become Community Builders continues a family tradition of philanthropy and leadership.
Medical research, art exhibits, nutrition lessons for new mothers, trips to camp for chronically ill children – the Hudsons’ gifts through the years have long planted seeds of hope throughout Broward. The new endowed Hudson Family Fund means their ability to give back to the community – with help for the arts, for education, for health and wellness and even for future challenges that have yet to emerge – will never end.
The Hudsons give and they get involved. Steven W. Hudson is chairman of the Foundation Board of Directors and his sister Holly Bodenweber previously served on the Board.
“We have deep roots here. This community has enriched our lives so much. That’s why our family has made this gift,” Steven W. Hudson said. “We are fully invested and truly believe there is no better place than the Foundation for you to put your philanthropic dollars to invest to make so much impact in this community that we all love.”
The Hudsons and the Krupnicks exemplify the BE BOLD commitment that Broward needs more of to ensure we remain a community that thrives, Foundation President and CEO Linda Carter said. It will take more leaders like them, in partnership with the Foundation, to build an endowment that keeps pace with Broward’s challenges, she said.
“Broward is their home and they are determined to make it the best it can be,” Carter said. “There is no other organization that can do this. We have the track record. The need is great. The time is now.”
To learn how you can become part of the BE BOLD Leadership Campaign, and put your fingerprints on Broward’s future with an endowed charitable Fund, contact the Foundation at info@cfbroward.org or 954-761-9503.
