'Quite significant': Wine fest foundation distributes $33.2M to Collier charities
A favorite motto among Naples Winter Wine Festival organizers is "for the kids."
The Naples Children & Education Foundation, the wine fest's founding organization, showed why Monday when it allocated $33.2 million to 51 Collier County nonprofits whose missions are helping underprivileged and at-risk children.
The record-breaking amount of money was raised at the wine fest's January’s auction. Foundation officials announced the grants earlier this week at The Ritz-Carlton, Tiburon, in North Naples.
The awarded amounts are divided into three categories. Traditional grants and NCEF’s initiative organizations and blueprint partners received the bulk of the funds, more than $26 million. Future projects and strategic initiatives received over $7.2 million.
How was the money distributed?
Every five years, most recently in 2022, the Foundation commissions a well-being study of Collier's less fortunate kids to determine their most urgent needs. Those initiatives are early learning, mental health, health care, hunger, oral health, out-of-school time, and vision.
More than $19.4 million was disbursed to 19 incentive organizations and blueprint partners addressing these seven initiatives. Mental health received the most, with $8.6 million split among five nonprofits: David Lawrence Centers; FSU: College of Medicine—Isabel Collier Read Medical Campus; Golisano Children’s Hospital; Healthcare Network; and the National Alliance on Mental Illness/Collier.
Traditional grants totaling more than $6.6 million were distributed to 32 local charities, ranging from $50,000 for MusicScores Violin to $686,000 for the Children’s Advocacy Center. Other prominent organizations in this category included on this list are Legal Aid, Youth Haven, Pace Center for Girls, and the Boys and Girls Club of Collier County.
Why it matters
“Our strategic partners collaborate throughout the year to optimize funding, avoid duplication and develop innovative programs aimed at delivering high-quality services to support local children,” said Foundation CEO Maria Jimenez-Lara in a news release.
“The amount allocated for these multi-year initiatives is quite significant, reflecting our overwhelming belief in their impact and efficacy.”
Going, going, sold: Naples Winter Wine Festival's online auction raises over $1 million
Since the Festival’s debut, nearly $302 million has been distributed to Collier County nonprofits devoted to helping kids because not a cent of taxpayer funds is allocated to them. According to Forbes.com, Collier ranks second among Florida's 67 counties with the most significant wealth disparities among its residents.
Next year’s festivities mark the NWWF’s 25th anniversary.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: $33.2M raised at wine fest awarded to Collier nonprofits to help kids
