11 May HONORING A CHAMPION FOR SUSTAINABLE GIVING

Editor’s note: We are pleased to honor Michele King Soffer, a great Miamian, for her selfless dedication to help those who need it most, as our 2018 Donor Next Door honoree. Below is the short piece that appeared in the Donor Next Door Family Album.

Michele King Soffer is on a mission to help reshape the way we think about philanthropy in Greater Miami’s multicultural communities. Her desire to connect with her father’s home country of Haiti sparked a deep commitment to help the nation thrive by working with Miami’s Haitian diaspora to give back.

While her father was born and raised in Haiti, it was not until after the devastating 2010 earthquake that Michele first visited. That journey has since evolved into a personal passion.  As the co-founder and executive director of New Hope 4 Haiti (NH4H), a Les Cayes-based orphanage, Michele helped build a new home for dozens of children. She made sure the building was equipped to utilize solar energy, well water and other sustainable resources to protect the organization from unforeseen threats, such as hurricanes.

She has since widened her impact by serving as vice chair of The Ayiti Community Trust, a newly created endowment fund being incubated at The Miami Foundation. The Trust aims to create a permanent source of charitable dollars to support long-term quality of life solutions in Haiti, like alleviating poverty and protecting the environment and clean water. Michele is helping lead these efforts with the hopes of the Trust becoming the first community foundation ever to operate in Haiti. Michele also sits on the board of 3to5days.org, a nonprofit that is focused on providing sustainable solutions for clean water to areas in need in Haiti and the Bahamas.