Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties

The Leadership Fund

• identifies the critical challenges facing our community;
• commissions research and special reports to illuminate issues and opportunities;
• holds public forums and networking events to inform and engage public dialogue;
• convenes community leaders and volunteer task forces to identify and accomplish action agendas; and, most important of all,
• helps and supports the Community Foundation in its efforts to lead and facilitate the positive change our communities need.

• Problems in Paradise: The People of Palm Beach and Martin Counties Speak Up, a community-wide survey of key issues identified by the people of Palm Beach and Martin Counties.
• Our Water… Our Future… Our Choice and Envisioning Alternative Futures for Water Resources Study, a report from a leading scientist on the scenarios affecting our water quality and supply.
• Nonprofits and the Economy Annual Survey, a qualitative survey of the nonprofit community and the effect of the economy on the nonprofit sector in our service areas.
• Generation Connection: How Nonprofits Can Promote Community Engagement across Generations, a helpful resource for nonprofits.
• Rental Housing Study of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, a comprehensive look at affordable rental housing issues affecting mid to low income families in our region.
• Supporting Access to Education Opportunity for Area Students, the most comprehensive local resource for scholarship opportunities for students in Palm Beach and Martin Counties. 

• The data on community issues we gathered from Problems in Paradise helped shape the Community Foundation’s grantmaking priorities and helped form the discussion areas and purpose behind YourPBC.org, the first ever “digital public square” for Palm Beach County.    
• Our Water… Our Future… Our Choice helped spark discussion and public debate on the conservation and protection of our water resources. As a follow-up to this debate, the Foundation helped facilitate an unprecedented discussion with agricultural landowners about “farming water” …. potentially leading to tremendous steps forward in water management and collaboration.

• Leading the Safety Net Challenge, a collaborative effort between funders and the community to address the rising needs of food, shelter, healthcare and childcare, collectively raising more than $1.3 million for more than 30 nonprofits in just one month.
• Hosting Networking for Nonprofits, unique events designed to bring nonprofits together to spark ideas, conversation and collaboration.
• Conducting Meet the Funders events, bringing together leaders of other foundations to provide hundreds of nonprofits an opportunity to learn about their funding priorities and to ask critical questions.
• The Rental Housing Study of Palm Beach and Martin Counties identified the critical need for affordable rental housing, and led the Community Foundation to allocate a $4 million low interest loan to the Florida Community Loan Fund in support of affordable rental housing.
• Generation Connection: How Nonprofits Can Promote Community Engagement across Generations, promoted community discussion in in-person events and virtually on YourPBC.org. 
• The Scholarship Directory has provided thousands of area students the resources they need to help make their educational dream a reality.
• Other data collected led to the creation of Nonprofits Going Green: A comprehensive program and annual contest that supports nonprofits in efforts to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly in their work.
   

• The absence of affordable rental housing, tsunami of housing foreclosures, and escalating job loss are creating a perfect storm for low to moderate income families struggling to stay afloat;
• The horrific impact of the earthquake in Haiti has begun to reverberate here, closer to home as our schools, hospitals and local families work to absorb the diaspora created by the social and economic collapse within this island nation, deeply affecting the thousands of Haitians that live in Palm Beach and  Martin Counties;  
• The nonprofit community, often the “first responders” in meeting community needs, are experiencing a steep decline in resources from public and private sources at precisely the time the safety net services they provide have steeply escalated;  and,
• Grantmakers and donors are working to improve efforts at collaboration and newly engaging in partnerships to do better by working together to address all of these issues.