Allows Donors to Focus on Progress and Results

GuideStar_Platinum_seal-MD

FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 23, 2016) – The Southwest Florida Community Foundation has earned the Platinum GuideStar Nonprofit Profile Seal of Transparency, the highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar, the world’s largest source of nonprofit information. The Platinum level was developed and introduced to nonprofits earlier this year.

By sharing metrics that highlight changes the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is making toward its mission, the organization is helping donors move beyond simplistic ways of nonprofit evaluation like overhead ratios and is focusing on the organization’s impact in the community and the changes the Foundation is making in the region.

“Based on the Foundation’s long-held belief in being transparent about our work, we are excited to convey our organization’s results in a user-friendly and highly visual manner,” said Sarah Owen, president and CEO of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. “By updating our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile to the Platinum level, we can now easily share a wealth of up-to-date organizational metrics with our supporters as well as GuideStar’s immense online audience, which includes donors, grantmakers, our peers, and the media.”

To reach the Platinum level, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation added extensive information to its Nonprofit Profile on GuideStar: basic contact and organizational information; in-depth financial information; qualitative information about goals, strategies, and capabilities; and quantitative information about results and progress toward its mission.

“By taking the time to provide this information, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation has demonstrated its commitment to transparency and to giving donors and funders meaningful data to

evaluate us,” added Owen. “We’re proud that our GuideStar Platinum Nonprofit Profile and its associated benefits help us better communicate our organization’s exciting initiatives at a global scale.”

The GuideStar database contains a profile for every tax-exempt nonprofit registered with the IRS.

GuideStar encourages every nonprofit to claim and update its profile at no cost to the organization.

Updating allows nonprofits to share a wealth of up-to-date information with the more than 7 million people who visit GuideStar to learn more about nonprofit organizations each year. Updating also allows

nonprofits to share information with the more than 180 philanthropic websites and applications that are

powered by GuideStar data. To reach a given participation level, organizations need to complete all

required fields for that participation level. The GuideStar participation levels, acknowledged as symbols of transparency in the nonprofit sector, are displayed on all updated participants’ profiles in the GuideStar

database.

The Southwest Florida Community Foundation is celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2016. As leaders, conveners, grant makers and concierges of philanthropy, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is a foundation built on community leadership with an inspired history of fostering regional change for the common good in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Community Foundation, founded in 1976, connects donors and their philanthropic aspirations with evolving community needs. With assets of more than $93 million, the Community Foundation has provided more than $63 million in grants and scholarships to the communities it serves. Last year, it granted more than $3.2 million to nonprofit organizations supporting education, animal welfare, arts, healthcare and human services, as well as provided regional community impact grants and scholarship grants.

For more information about the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, call 239-274-5900 or visit www.floridacommunity.com.