Giving Close to Home

Every foundation has to decide where to begin. The needs of the world are vast, and no family can meet them all. For ours, the answer has always been simple: we begin at home, in our own community.

Seeing need clearly

There is a practical reason for this. We understand our own community better than any other. We know its neighbourhoods and its growth, and we can see where families are struggling even as the region around them prospers. That understanding helps us give more thoughtfully, and it helps us recognise organizations that are doing steady, effective work.

Giving close to home also keeps us honest. When the people we hope to help live nearby, the needs are not abstract. They are part of the life we share.

It also lets us learn. Over time, local giving teaches a family which organizations are steady, how needs change from one season to the next, and where a modest, reliable commitment can matter more than a larger one made only once. That kind of knowledge is hard to gain from a distance, and it makes every decision we take a little wiser.

Food and shelter come first

Much of our local giving goes to the most basic needs: food and a safe place to live. It is difficult to think about anything else, whether school, work or health, when those needs are not met.

That is why we support organizations such as Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida and Harbor House of Central Florida. Each does different work. Together, they reflect a belief we hold firmly: that security at home is the foundation for everything else a family hopes to build.

Children and families

Children are at the centre of our giving. A child's circumstances are never of their own making, and the support they receive early can shape the rest of their lives. We support organizations such as the Children's Home Society of Florida and A Kids Place of Tampa Bay because they give children in difficult situations something every child deserves: safety, stability and adults who care.

Supporting children also connects to our family's own purpose. Part of the reason our foundation exists is to teach our children that what we are given comes with a duty to give back. It feels right that so much of our giving goes to other children.

Why steady support matters locally

Local organizations often feel the uncertainty of funding most sharply. A food bank or shelter cannot pause its work while it waits to learn whether help will arrive. That is one reason we favour recurring, relationship-based support. When organizations can count on us, they can plan, and the families they serve can count on them.

We also try not to add to their burden. We do not accept unsolicited grant applications, and we do not ask the organizations we support to spend their time courting us. Their time belongs to their work.

Home first, but not home only

Beginning at home does not mean ending there. Our family also supports medical research and humanitarian relief, reaching far beyond our own community. But we believe that a family's giving is most grounded when it starts with the community it knows best, and grows outward from there.

A place we hope to strengthen

Our community has given our family a great deal. Supporting it is one small way of returning that gift. We hope that, over time, the organizations we back will be a little stronger, the families they serve a little more secure, and our children a little more aware of the place they call home and of their part in caring for it.