Grantmakers › Florida

Community Foundation of the Florida

Key West, FL · EIN 65-0648968. Reported 35 grants totalling $8,859,324 to 33 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

33organizations funded
$11,260median reported grant
$8,859,324granted, 2021-2024
0%of grantees funded again the next year
86%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Community Foundation of the Florida, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 33 distinct organizations, with 86% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is extreme concentration. A grantmaker sending three quarters of its money to one organization is in practice a support fund for that organization, whatever its classification says, and an unsolicited request is very unlikely to go anywhere.
  3. How much its list changes. 0% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $11,260. Half of what it reported fell between $8,000 and $48,400; the smallest was $5,350 and the largest $2,906,073. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
14 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
11 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
2 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
2 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
2 grants
$250,000 Or More
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
See Attached Schedule 1$7,641,655332024
The Studios of Key West IncKey West, FL$403,788112021
Miami-Dade Historical Maritime Museum IncKey West, FL$210,000112021
Monroe County Board of County CommissionersKey West, FL$147,000112021
Fringe Theater of Key West IncKey West, FL$51,395112021
Key West Botanical Garden Society IncKey West, FL$50,541112021
Metropolitan Community Church Key WestKey West, FL$48,400112021
Sister Season Fund IncKey West, FL$33,650112021
Presbyterian Church USA a CorpLouisville, KY$24,167112021
Star of the Sea Foundation IncKey West, FL$23,350112021
St Peters Episcopal Church of Key West Florida IncKey West, FL$21,000112021
Samuels House IncKey West, FL$19,369112021
Key West Literary Seminar IncKey West, FL$14,000112021
Unity of the Keys IncKey West, FL$14,000112021
Monroe Council of the Arts CorporationKey West, FL$12,200112021
Florida Keys Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to AnimalsKey West, FL$11,260112021
Cornerstone Resource Alliance IncBig Pine Key, FL$10,000112021
Habitat for Humanity International IncMarathon, FL$10,000112021
Monroe County Long Term Recovery GroupBig Pine Key, FL$10,000112021
Marine Resources Development FoundationKey Largo, FL$9,825112021
Florida Keys Area Health Education Center Program IncMarathon, FL$9,500112021
Key West Art & Historical Society IncKey West, FL$8,750112021
Navy League of the United States National HeadquartersKey West, FL$8,250112021
Just Older Youth IncTavernier, FL$8,000112021
Leadership Monroe County IncKey West, FL$8,000112021
Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition IncKey West, FL$7,500112021
Literacy Volunteers of America Monroe County IncKey West, FL$7,500112021
Red Barn Actors Studio IncKey West, FL$7,500112021
Keys to Be the Change IncKey West, FL$6,000112021
Protect Key West IncKey West, FL$5,974112021
Key West Impromptu Classical Concerts IncKey West, FL$5,900112021
Montessori Island Charter School IncIslamorada, FL$5,500112021
Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Florida KeysKey West, FL$5,350112021

1 of 33 (3%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 21 of 33 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
6 orgs
Health Care
3 orgs
Housing & Shelter
3 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Environment
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Animal Welfare
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202132$1,217,669$10,000
20221$1,953,248$1,953,248
20231$2,782,334$2,782,334
20241$2,906,073$2,906,073

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

98% of its giving went to organizations in Florida. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Florida
$1.2M
Kentucky
$24K

Down to the city

Key West, FL
$1.1M
Louisville, KY
$24K
Big Pine Key, FL
$20K
Marathon, FL
$20K
Key Largo, FL
$10K
Tavernier, FL
$8K

Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one

7 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 18 grants totalling $1,665,939 to Community Foundation of the Florida. That is 39% of the 18 funders we can see giving to it. Those 7 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a community foundation.

4 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.

What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.

FoundationStateReportedGrantsYearsLast
Katherine Wells Macmillan FoundationMinnesota$1,487,500112024
The Clements Family Charitable TrustFlorida$82,500442024
The Sexton Family FoundationFlorida$52,000442024
The Dogwood FoundationTexas$40,000442024
Guerin FoundationCalifornia$2,500112022
The Warren Family FoundationFlorida$1,031112024
Amazonsmile FoundationWashington$408332023

A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.

Every foundation in the table above files Form 990-PF, which reports every grant it made and asks outright whether it funds only organizations it picks. That answer is what puts it on this list; no other form asks the question. The grants this organization reports making are on Form 990 Schedule I, which only requires listing recipients paid more than $5,000. Two different populations, so the money in and the money out on this page are not two halves of one figure and must not be added or compared.

Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund12 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc11 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program9 shared recipientsEdward B and Joan T Knight Foundati8 shared recipientsKeys Open Doors Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsHunterward Foundation5 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $11,260 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Florida.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding arts & culture in FloridaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding health care in FloridaEvery funder in this groupFoundations funding human services in FloridaEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Community Foundation of the Florida's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

Address of record on the latest return: 300 Southard St Suite 201, Key West, FL, 33040.

EIN 65-0648968 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.