{"id":420687,"date":"2026-10-06T23:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420687\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:08:13","slug":"fort-myers-nonprofit-supports-social-programs-for-50-years-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420687\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Myers nonprofit supports social programs for 50 years | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Collaboratory Fort Myers\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6893ac0fe8bfe.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"112\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Collaboratory, founded 50 years ago in Fort Myers, has grown to $184.5 million in total assets and is on track to reach $200 million.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Gulfshore Business<\/p>\n<p>The regional nonprofit community foundation Collaboratory was founded 50 years ago in Fort Myers. It manages 766 individual philanthropic funds supporting Southwest Florida social-service programs, President and CEO Dawn Belamarich said in a presentation to the Fort Myers City Council at its regular meeting Oct. 5.<\/p>\n<p>Collaboratory\u2019s total assets have grown to $184.5 million and are on track to reach $200 million, Belamarich reported. Originally called the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, Collaboratory has invested $147 million in philanthropic funds over 50 years through grants, scholarships and donations for targeted programs in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties.<\/p>\n<p>Its downtown Fort Myers location also provides donated meeting and event space for eligible nonprofits and public partners, as well as an emergency operations hub for first responders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collaboratory, founded 50 years ago in Fort Myers, has grown to $184.5 million in total assets and is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,166118,12245,897,1515,1521],"class_list":["post-420687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-collaboratory","tag-community-foundation","tag-fort-myers","tag-philanthropy","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}