PHOTO: Peter MacDougall 1937-2021.

A successful campaign has resulted in 24 nonprofit organizations planting the seeds for millions of dollars of permanent support for our Florida Keys community over the coming decades.

In early 2022, the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys announced a matching program to support the financial sustainability of our Monroe County nonprofits. Local agencies investing $10,000 to $20,000 in a foundation fund had their contribution doubled by the Peter MacDougall Match for Agency Endowments.

“The campaign is complete and over a million dollars added to our community chest in perpetuity,” said Community Foundation CEO Jennifer McComb. Last Stand received the final $20,000 match of the $500,000 challenge on August 18. The organization’s mission is to promote, preserve, and protect the quality of life in the city of Key West and the Florida Keys. Its endowment is invested in the Community Foundation’s “In Paradise for Good” ESG fund.

“Our professional investment manager CAPTRUST will grow these funds exponentially. In 10 years, we will support nonprofits with half a million dollars annually without ever touching the principal, McComb said. She said that over time each nonprofit will receive five and six figure checks annually to support their good work in the Keys. The first year’s earnings for these new funds can support $50,000 in total community grants, rising to over a million in 2043 and $1.6 million annually by 2053.

The Community Foundation is now managing permanent endowment funds for the benefit of AH Monroe, the Bahama Village Music Program, the Conch Republic Marine Army, Florida Bay Forever, Florida Keys Council of the Arts, Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition, Florida Keys History & Discovery Foundation, Florida Keys SPCA, Florida Keys Wildlife Society, Friends of the AIDS Memorial, Friends of the Key Largo Library, Friends of the Key West Library, the Key West Art Center, Key West Art & Historical Society, the Key West Botanical Garden Society, the Key West Community Sailing Center, Key West Impromptu Classical Concerts, the Key West Jaycees, the Key West Literary Seminar, the Key West Orchid Society, Key West Wildlife Center, Keys Choral Arts, Keys to be the Change, Last Stand, The Lodging Association of the Florida Keys and Key West, MarineLab, Monroe Association for ReMARCable Citizens, the Montessori Children’s School of Key West, Mote Marine Laboratory, One Human Family, One Island Family, Reef Relief, Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, Samuel’s House, Star of the Sea Foundation, the Studios of Key West, Sunrise Rotary Foundation of Key West, the Tennessee Williams Theatre, Upper Keys Business & Professional Women, and the Waterfront Playhouse.

Visit cffk.org/donate to make a charitable donation to any of these funds.

The half million dollars of seed money for the campaign came from the estate gift of seasonal Key West resident Peter MacDougall, who passed away on October 27, 2021.