The Miami Foundation

A thriving community is one that is engaged, connected and working together toward a shared vision. Give Miami Day is a shining example of how achieving this unity of purpose creates a special Miami Moment that we can all be proud of.

In a single day, Miami ignited a movement that had never been tested in our community before. The result was more than $1.2 million raised for 300 nonprofit organizations that tirelessly ensure our community’s needs are met.  Almost 5,000 donors spanning the city, nation and globe joined the effort and dollar by dollar, selflessly gave into our shared vision for a better place to live.  Those organizations are now empowered to serve a community that proved how highly we regard their work.

This is how great communities are built: with the dedication, sacrifice and vision demonstrated by the entire city on Give Miami Day.  What we achieved together opens a new chapter for Miami. The generosity of spirit that Miamians displayed should instill pride in everyone who calls this place home and make others take note of the character and values this community holds dear.

We should take a moment to reflect on what we accomplished.  Along with our partners Knight Foundation and Marlins Foundation, we know this is a community where generosity and compassion are built into our DNA. Whether it’s assistance to family, neighbors, church or victims of a natural disaster in our region, Miamians are always there to lend a helping hand.

America has a long-standing tradition of philanthropy and it is alive and well in Miami.  As one of the many organizations charged with being a steward in this community, The Miami Foundation considers it our privilege to create opportunities for altruistic giving.  Meeting our community’s challenges and shaping an ever-brighter future for Miami requires civic awareness, engagement and pride.

The Miami Moment created by Give Miami Day contributed to this effort. What will the next Miami Moment be?

Javier Alberto Soto, president and CEO

Miami is abuzz as we get closer and closer to 12/12/12!  From Facebook to Twitter, residents and organizations are spreading the word about the inaugural Give Miami Day, a unique, online giving event that allows individuals in the community an opportunity to build a greater Miami through philanthropy.  For 24 hours on December 12, 2012, The Miami Foundation will excite Miami to support more than 300 nonprofits making a difference in our community.

Nonprofit organizations across Miami-Dade County have created searchable profiles for viewing on GiveMiamiDay.org, allowing existing and potential donors to see the mission, work and impact of each organization.  Every donation between $25 and $10,000 received through GiveMiamiDay.org on that day will have a percentage of it matched by The Miami Foundation.  Nonprofits hope to connect with donors looking to support the important work they do in the community.

You can make your charitable gifts to local nonprofits beginning at 12 midnight on December 12 and ending at 12 midnight on December 13.

“Give Miami Day will help us stimulate and grow philanthropy throughout the community,” shared our president and CEO, Javier Alberto Soto. “Through the Give Miami site, donors can find and give to organizations doing the work they believe is best for Miami-Dade.  It’s an easy way to support the causes most important to them.”

The Give Miami Day website provides in-depth information about hundreds of local nonprofits.  Organizations featured on the site are able to tell their story – giving people in the community a better understanding of their results and the need for their services. The website connects visitors with like-minded donors who share similar passions. GiveMiamiDay.org provides the transparency donors need to make the kinds of decisions that turn a simple act of giving into a wise investment.

Fostering beneficial relationships in greater Miami through the work of nonprofit organizations brings the community closer together for all the right reasons. We look forward to the community getting behind Give Miami Day, because it is one day when their gifts will truly give more.

Click here to find an organization you want to support, and remember to donate on December 12 at GiveMiamiDay.org.  Please visit our frequently asked questions page for more information, or contact Marianne Maduro, senior program officer, at mmaduro@miamifoundation.org.

According to the recently published Miami Millennial Civic Health Index Report, Miami’s residents ages 18-29 - also known as "Millennials" - ranked lower than their counterparts across the state and nation on indicators like volunteering and voting. Young adults without any college experience were particularly cut off from civic life, the report found.

The National Conference on Citizenship and The Florida Joint Center for Citizenship, founded by Senator Bob Graham and Congressman Lou Frey, produced the report, which was released at Mobilize.org's Target 2020 Florida Summit earlier this summer. The event brought together almost 100 South Florida community college students in Miami, FL, to discuss ways to boost community college completion rates and increase the participation of Miami’s Millennial generation in civic life.

“The results of the Miami Millennial Civic Health Report underscore how critical it is for Millennials in Miami to get involved in addressing the unique challenges that face our generation,” said Maya Smith, CEO of Mobilize.org, the nonprofit that hosted the summit. Mobilize.org empowers and invests in Millennials to create and implement solutions to social problems. “There are some steep hills to climb, but the creativity and energy of the students is palpable."

The report suggests that opportunities for experiential civic education that allow students to actually practice the skills of engaged citizenship should be expanded and strengthened in both high schools and colleges—particularly those serving non-traditional and low income students. Additionally, the report recommends expanding civic engagement opportunities for non-college bound youth, as an estimated one-third of Miami's Millennials do not have any college experience. Programs like YouthBuild, which encourages young people to work towards their degrees or GEDs while learning leadership and job skills, should be expanded, the report recommends.

Race affected electoral engagement, but in unexpected ways, according to the report. African-Americans and Cuban Millennials were the groups most likely to register and vote, while Whites were more likely to have engaged on other indicators, such as volunteering or attending a public meeting. Non-Cuban Latinos were generally the least engaged group of Miami Millennials. The small numbers of Millennials engaged in these activities, however, muted the overall effects of race.

Senator Graham joined Under Secretary of U.S. Dept of Education Dr. Martha J. Kanter and other local leaders at the Target 2020 Florida Summit as students discussed solutions to low graduation and civic participation rates.

"The report that we are releasing today is an indication that we are not doing enough in South Florida," said Sen. Graham. "As public and private leaders, we have an obligation to join together to build a sustainable framework that insures that all of our young people have opportunities to experience civic life and to build the skills of responsible, effective and honorable citizenship. Successful completion of that task requires young people who care about community issues and local institutions that can provide them with opportunities to learn about civic work by doing it."

Amber Goodwin is Director of Network Initiatives at Mobilize.org.

As the sun set over the ocean in Cartagena, Colombia, I really felt like I was looking in a mirror at Greater Miami. The beautiful beaches and palm trees. The skyline of soaring seaside high-rise condos and hotels. The silhouettes of port gantry cranes in the distance. I was in Cartagena with our 17 Miami Fellows from July 15 to 19 to explore issues in the hemisphere that parallel those Fellows have been examining at home and leadership challenges to creating change.

Like Miami, this oceanfront scene stood in sharp contrast to so many other things we had seen and heard. We met with government and business leaders outlining goals and plans to grow key industries and create projects to reduce the 35+ percent poverty rate. We saw our massive sister seaport - and likely the very containers that U.S.-Colombia trade ties would soon bring to Miami's Watson Island. We spent time in the charming walled Spanish colonial old city - the centerpiece of their tourism industry. Each reflected elements of our common assets and potential avenues for prosperity.

But we also ventured to areas beyond and saw the view of economic disparity - a challenge we know well in Greater Miami. It was most poignant for me when our travels gave us a glimpse of what Colombia's official neighborhood/housing rating scale of 6 to 0 looks like in real life. We went from the higher-end 5 to 6 level of our tourist hotel and condo area, through streets of tidy middle-class level 3 to 4 homes, and down a road that passed a new school that Colombian pop music star Shakira's philanthropy helped build in a neighborhood rated level 2 to 1. Looking at the precariously leaning, make-shift, wood-walled homes amid dirt streets and toxic water canals left us asking: So what on earth are the living conditions at 0?

And in the stories of everyday people we met everywhere we heard the echo of struggle – and also aspirations for and commitment to building a better life and community. We heard it from the women in the micro-enterprise program who needed a home-business option to earn a living while staying home to raise their children in the urban areas where skills are low and jobs are few. We heard it from the Afro-Colombians living on the stunning Rosario Islands an hour by boat off the coast. In 1977 Rosario Island was designation as a coral reef national park which lead to restrictions on commercial fishing - and with it the centuries' old livelihood of residents like the 500 people on Isla Grande.

The starkness of disparity and the distance to the lofty goals would make it easy to lose hope.

But I also saw where hope lives. I saw it on the beach when I met the young woman offering me an ocean-side massage, who turned out to be a student in the nation's expansive training service program working to create income-generation strategies in growing industries – like catering and tourism. We saw it in the faces of the children who greeted us with flowers and songs at the Actuar por Bolivar nonprofit where they go to day care and adult residents go to learn how to start their own business or get training in trades related to plastics manufacturing, computers, jewelry making and culinary fields. We saw it at the tiny street shop - in one of those high-poverty level 2-1 neighborhoods - that a mother of three started with a micro-loan. She now sells children's clothes and household goods for the community and is able to provide for

her family, add a second floor to her house, save toward putting a college education within reach for her children – and be a role model and local leader.

The challenges are huge and complex and the solutions imperfect. But leaders and families everywhere share simple common aspirations to build a better future. And while the starkness of the poverty makes the challenges looks different in Cartagena versus our "developed" city, the challenges themselves are so much the same. And when we can connect at a person-to-person level anywhere, we find that hope does live in every city, neighborhood and street within the people who don't give up despite the odds.

So as leaders back home in Greater Miami, neither can we.

Charisse Grant is the Senior Vice President for Programs at The Miami Foundation.

Last week my colleagues and I attended the grand opening of The Beacon, a beautiful 13-story affordable housing development in Miami’s historic Overtown neighborhood.  It is the first affordable housing development built in Overtown in more than 10 years.  The building, which consists of 90 LEED-certified, transit-oriented homes was developed by Carlisle Development Group. Carlisle has been named the #3 Affordable Housing Developer in the nation for the past two years. These units were developed for people making between 28 and 60 percent of the average median income, affording them the opportunity to live in a safe and secure environment.
 
A 3,000 square foot community space on the ground level was generously donated by Carlisle to local non-profit, Urgent, Inc. This organization was recognized by the Department of Juvenile Justice as the Shining Star Winner for Prevention Programs in Miami-Dade County.  In addition to the services the organization provides to neighborhoods throughout the county, including Liberty City, Little Haiti and Goulds, Urgent, Inc. is providing Overtown residents after school educational programs in its new home.

Pictured above: Emily Gresham, Vice President of Development, Michelle Spence Jones, City of Miami Commissioner and a Fundholder at the Foundation, Matthew Greer, CEO at Carlisle Development Group and Fundholder at the Foundation, Brian McDonough of Stearns Weaver and Fundholder at the Foundation, Audrey Edmonson, Miami-Dade County Commissioner and Janell Benzaquen.

Marianne Maduro is Senior Program Officer at The Miami Foundation.

Javier Soto, our CEO, and I just spent a day and a half with leaders from community foundations across Florida. We were asked by the Florida Philanthropic Network to present about the process that we went through when we changed our name from Dade Community Foundation to The Miami Foundation.

There are a number of Florida community foundations that have either just completed this process, are in the process or are considering it. As community foundations approach their centennial and as the market is rapidly changing around us, we think it is an important exercise to analyze brand and our value proposition.

It’s an exercise that we went through at the Foundation just over a year and a half ago. Our goal was to share what we learned: all of it, the good and the bad. We touched on the discovery done with key constituents, other community foundations and competitors in Miami.  We covered the process of identifying a logo and how we built our brand from that.

You may have noticed the dots in the “I”s in our logo are each a different color. These represent the three pillars of our brand: leadership, community and philanthropy. These three powerful words frame all of the work that we do at the Foundation.

We heard from Gulf Coast Community Foundation and from the Community Foundation for Sarasota County. They both have just completed a brand refresh. It was interesting to see the different approaches and different places we have landed graphically – and yet we’re all community foundations.

On Tuesday, we were treated to Don Macke who is completing a transfer of wealth study for Florida. This important data will help Florida philanthropy plan for the future. A key takeaway for Miami was the finding that the probability of a person who works in one of the Creative Classes, as defined by Richard Florida, to create a million dollar estate is much higher. This is good news for us as 25% of Miamians are working in the creative classes, according to a new study we are about to release that was completed by FIU.

The ability to get out of our office and share our experiences and learn from others keeps us on top of trends in our field and ultimately allows us to serve our donors and our community better. We appreciate our membership in Florida Philanthropic Network and feel that we get great value out of our membership through meetings like these and more.

Nancy Jones is Vice President for Public Affairs and Commuications at The Miami Foundation.

For the past six months or so we have been laboring over the visuals and words that you are discovering on this, our new website.

This site though is more than instructive words about how to start your foundation with us and more than gorgeous pictures of our grants in action. This new version of our site gives our donors access to their Foundation Fund 24/7.

This is a benefit that we are proud to launch for our donors. From their portal called givemiami, they can add to their Fund, make a grant, check on investment performance and more. Later this summer we will add a new feature called connectmiami.

We think about this cool platform like amazon.com. A donor will see featured nonprofits based on their previous granting history. For example, if I have given to the Miami City Ballet in the past, I may see the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet on my welcome page. From there, I’ll be able to read about Thomas Armour, look at their board of directors list, see their most recent financials and look at pictures of their programs.

connectmiami will be so robust that I will also be able to research 100s of nonprofits in Miami that are doing great work in all kinds of areas: AIDS prevention, alzheimers research, art and culture, animals and aging – and those are just the As. Our hope is that with the launch of givemiami and connectmiami, philanthropy will increase.

Take three minutes and explore this new site. You can see all of the different grant programs we offer; meet our Board of Trustees and learn about the incredible power of endowment.

Drop me an email and let me know what you think. And check this space often for new blog posts from our staff and partners.

Nancy Jones is the Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications at The Miami Foundation.