Central Florida Foundation

10/26/2026

Building a roadmap for a thriving community takes collaboration, thoughtful conversations, and a willingness to see challenges through different perspectives.

At our recent Thrive Roadmap working session, community leaders stepped into the shoes of Central Florida residents, exploring the experiences and challenges of four different personas as they navigate everyday life.

Across the room, common themes emerged: the importance of human connection, building trust, simplifying processes, and recognizing the role of culture, timing, and capacity in accessing opportunities and resources.

These conversations are helping shape the Thrive Roadmap, a community-driven plan to align efforts, build on what's already working, and move Orange County toward a more resilient, connected, and thriving future.

We're grateful to the many volunteer leaders contributing their time, expertise, and perspectives to this important work. The Roadmap is being built by our community, for our community, and we're excited to see it continue taking shape.

Thank you to the City of Orlando for leading a thoughtful briefing on Amendment 3 and for Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, Inc. for the space to convene!

Learn more here: https://cffound.org/about/thrive/thrive-roadmap

10/20/2026

Thank you to the Central Florida Estate Planning Council for inviting us to speak at this month's luncheon!

CFF's Steven J. Jerina, MPA, CAP® shared insights from the Advisor's Charitable Toolbox, including simple ways to incorporate charitable giving into client conversations and how philanthropy can provide solutions for a variety of client needs.

Whether you're an estate attorney, CPA, or financial advisor, we're honored to be your first call when philanthropy enters the conversation.

What a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon!

10/15/2026

The News Collaborative of Central Florida has released its 2026 Voter Guide!

What began in 2024 as the Central Florida Journalism Ecosystem Summit, convened by Central Florida Public Media, Oviedo Community News, and Central Florida Foundation, has grown into a collaboration of local news organizations working together to strengthen journalism and better inform our region.

An informed, engaged community is essential to a thriving Central Florida. That's why CFF has been proud to help convene and advise the Collaborative, while editorial decisions remain entirely with its participating news organizations.

The 2026 Voter Guide is a great example of what can happen when local newsrooms share their expertise and resources to better serve Central Florida residents.

Explore the 2026 Voter Guide:

The News Collaborative of Central Florida, a collective of independent local news outlets and aligned partners working toward a more informed and engaged Central Florida, […]

09/23/2026

Some of the organizations doing meaningful work in Central Florida are also among the smallest. They are often deeply connected to the people and neighborhoods they serve, but with limited budgets and small teams, investing in the organization itself can be difficult.

To address this gap in our nonprofit community, Central Florida Foundation offers Grassroots Grants, an annual grant opportunity designed specifically for small but mighty nonprofits.🌱

We're excited to share this year's Grassroots Grant recipients, plus the dedicated volunteer evaluators and philanthropic legacies that power this work.

Read the announcement here: https://cffound.org/meet-central-florida-foundations-2026-grassroots-grantees/

📸: Reel Dreams And You, a 2026 grantee that empowers aspiring filmmakers of all ages through education, creativity, and equal opportunity.

09/21/2026

Once a year, we have the opportunity to step back and tell some of the stories that make us proud of the work we do.

The third edition of Thrive Magazine is here, and we're excited to share it with you.

We worked closely with our fundholders, grantees, community initiatives, and partners to bring this year's magazine to life. The result is a collection of stories about generosity at work: the people behind it, what inspires them, and what their philanthropy makes possible.

Inside, you'll discover:

⚕️A family honoring a life devoted to caring for others by investing in the next generation of oncology nurses.

🕰️A legacy designed to last, responding to community needs more than 25 years after it began.

💪20 years of 100 Women Strong, and the power of women learning, giving, and investing together.

🤝A community working together to take on some of Central Florida's most complex challenges.

Generosity taking many forms, from scholarships and grantmaking to collective giving and community investment.

We put a lot of care into these pages, and we are grateful to the people who allow us to be a part of their stories. We hope you'll spend some time with them and maybe find an idea or two for your own giving along the way.

Together, we're building community by building philanthropy.

Read Thrive Magazine now: https://cffound.org/thrive-magazine/

09/10/2026

Each week, we share insights into charitable giving with our community of CPAs, estate attorneys, and financial advisors.

ℹ️This week's topic: What happens if your client wants to give government securities to a nonprofit?

Not all government securities are created equal when it comes to charitable giving. Learn why marketable Treasury securities and savings bonds can present very different charitable and tax planning considerations. We share why identifying exactly what your client owns is an important first step before taking action.

Read the article here: https://cffound.org/what-happens-if-your-client-wants-to-give-government-securities-to-a-nonprofit/

Want to get these insights right in your inbox? DM us or email Steve Jerina, MPA, CAP® at [email protected]!

Government securities are a good example. Although clients may think of these investments as a single asset category, “government securities” actually

09/02/2026

Community in Action: Thriving Together Collaborative👋

A strong community needs a strong nonprofit sector. That belief is at the heart of Central Florida Foundation’s Thriving Together Collaborative (TTC), a CFF community investment grant program designed to strengthen nonprofits while supporting meaningful, sustainable change in neighborhoods across our region.

Through TTC, we bring nonprofits and community partners together to build skills in design thinking and problem-solving, foster deeper collaboration, and provide the capital and support needed to turn ideas into action. Now, after six months of learning and designing together, five neighborhood teams are putting those skills to work as they bring their projects focused on economic stability to life.

Larry Williams of Simeon Resource and Development Center for Men, Inc., a lead organization for the Holden Heights neighborhood team, reflects on his experience so far:

"When I received information about applying for TTC, I immediately began working on the proposal on behalf of my agency because Sandi Vidal has always made us feel that our input is wanted and welcomed without barriers. We are currently administering a community vision survey which provides a space for residents to give input relative to their vision of a future Holden Heights. One young man stated that he envisioned seniors sitting on their front porch in the community and providing wisdom to youth and young adults like he experienced growing up in Holden Heights."

This is collaboration and action happening in real time! We're excited to share more insights from the community projects in 2027. 💜

08/27/2026

Rex and Suzie chose to leave a part of their estate to the Foundation with a clear purpose: to care for others. Their fund was created to primarily support the welfare of animals and older adults, carrying forward the causes that mattered to them during their lifetimes.

More than two decades later, three infant spider monkeys were rescued after being trafficked into the United States. The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens needed to move quickly to give them a safe home and specialized care.

A fund created 22 years earlier was ready to help.

The Rex V. Stevens and Dulciza Stevens Fund at Central Florida Foundation provided support to help the Zoo care for its newest residents.

Because Rex and Suzie chose to endow their fund, their generosity continues beyond their lifetimes. Their fund has the flexibility to meet needs they couldn’t have predicted, while remaining rooted in the causes they cared about.

Today, Sunny, Klaus, and Violet are thriving as part of the Zoo’s spider monkey troop.

And they had some help getting there. Big Guy, the longtime leader of the Zoo’s spider monkey troop, helped younger monkeys who arrived after difficult beginnings learn the social behaviors of a troop. Big Guy passed away earlier this month at approximately 45 years old, after more than 40 years at the Zoo.

Over the years, our CFF team has had the pleasure and honor to visit these special animals at the Zoo. We're going to miss Big Guy deeply, but look forward to future visits with Sunny, Klaus, and Violet.

Rex and Suzie could never have known these three monkeys or anticipated the circumstances that would bring them to Central Florida. But they knew what they cared about and made sure their generosity would continue to reflect it.

We’re grateful to Rex and Suzie for thinking beyond their own lifetimes and entrusting us with a legacy that continues to care for our community today. And we’re grateful to Big Guy for the legacy he leaves behind, too.

08/20/2026

📢 Calling all local nonprofits: Join us for an Ask Us Anything virtual meeting!

🖥️ Ask Us Anything, August 21st, 1-2pm, Zoom

Learn about our current grant opportunities:
✅Winter Park Community Grants

Plus, ask us your questions!

Registration required. RSVP now: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4LkW0jaQSKePUBbCJeZ-Iw

07/31/2026

Systems-level thinking in action. ⚡🧠

Roadmap workgroups are currently developing blueprints for each Thrive area: education, livability, health and well-being, community and social connection, and economic stability. These blueprints tackle questions like: What are our biggest challenges? What approaches are working? What policies shape this work? How can we improve upon what's already in place?

Last week, nearly 100 Roadmap workgroup members came together to focus on one critical question: How does it all fit together?

Working alongside people outside their own focus areas, participants explored how their work connects with other sectors and the shared drivers that influence outcomes across our community.

The room was buzzing with collaboration, curiosity, and great ideas!

The biggest takeaway? We aren't working in silos. No matter which impact area you're focused on, our challenges and opportunities are interconnected. Solving our community's most complex issues means working together.

Perhaps the most encouraging part was seeing so many people willing to step outside their usual circles, learn from one another, and build solutions together. That's how lasting community change happens!

ℹ️ What is the Roadmap?
The Creating a Healthy and Thriving Community Roadmap initiative is a bold, systems-level effort to build a more vibrant and resilient Central Florida, starting in Orange County. Anchored by the Central Florida Foundation and guided by the Thrive Framework, this project brings together cross-sector leaders, residents, and organizations in a long-term, community-designed process for driving meaningful change. With blueprints being worked on now by over 100 volunteer leaders, we look forward to publishing the official Thrive Roadmap in 2027.