Florida Weekly Profile and Q&A of Collaboratory.
What inspired the launch of the business, and how was the vision involved?
Collaboratory is a community foundation that has been essential to our community since 1976. The organization has granted more than $132 million to non-profit partners over 49 years in Lee, Hendry, Glades, Charlotte, and Collier counties. The foundation was started by some incredible community champions who wanted to invest in the community and strengthen the region for generations. Over time, we have evolved our mission to respond to changing community needs and are now utilizing a more data-driven approach to serving the region. By bringing our partners together to collaborate, our mission is to solve the biggest social problems we face by 2040.
Have you introduced any new services?
What inspired the change? In the last two years, we have launched the Health and Wellness Coalition and Home Coalitions, two key initiatives sparked by community need and feedback. We are convening partners across those causes and funding projects that align to key data points. We are expanding the services we provide to nonprofit agency partners, enhanced our capacity building workshops to meet the ever-changing needs of our partners, and continue to launch projects that create long-term impact for the region. We are always inspired by community and will always be flexible to the needs of our residents, partners, and donors.
What’s one lesson you learned the hard way this year, and how has it shaped your strategy moving forward?
Change is the only constant in life. Our region has been impacted by hurricanes, population growth, housing burdens, etc., and with those changes, come the reminder to always remain flexible. We need to embrace that change, especially in serving our partners across SWFL. The more flexible we become, the more impactful we can be to the residents of our region in the future.
How do you stay connected with your partners and ensure you’re meeting their changing needs?
We stay engaged in our community by convening partners around shared goals, working with professional advisors, donors, and community change agents, and supporting causes that help our region thrive. Having an amazing physical space at Collaboratory allows us to offer free space to nonprofit partners, but more than that, it creates placemaking to achieve big goals. We work with hundreds of non-profit partners, and thousands of donors that support them, as well as with the private sector. We really try to be the nucleus for our community and tackle the challenges that we face together.
What’s one local collaboration or partnership that made a difference for your business this year?
We have so many success stories. Recently, we funded a collective of nonprofit organizations launching school gardens, as well as a housing voucher program supporting our community goals around attainable housing. We continue to fund projects and partners aligned with donor intent and that aim to achieve measurable impact over time.
