Why BNY Mellon is a sponsor of the Naples Winter Wine Festival to support the Naples Children & Education Foundation
Lisa Simington, Wealth Management Regional President Florida-West
Eileen Foley, National Director of Family Office Services
Since 2001, through the Naples Winter Wine Festival, the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF) has raised more than $135 million for annual grants and collaborative strategic initiatives to 40 nonprofit agencies that have transformed the lives of over 200,000 Collier County children.
We can all agree on the importance of giving back, and how critical philanthropy is to improving the lives of others, especially our youth. The NCEF, however, takes its mission to another level with a commitment to what we can call “smart philanthropy.” That is, to monitor and measure the programs and initiatives it supports—and make adjustments when and where they are needed. This ensures that the dollars that you, that we all, raise are used as effectively as possible.
And our friends at NCEF aren’t shy to tell you that their goal is to be a national model of philanthropy and community service, which is an important reason we at BNY Mellon have supported NCEF and its work here in Collier County. Our company takes community social responsibility very seriously. In recent years through our own “Powering Potential” and “Community Partnership” programs we have pursued on a global scale the same goals as NCEF and Collier County. So our partnership is a terrific fit—to the benefit of thousands Collier County kids.
BNY Mellon has over the years demonstrated its commitment to Naples and Collier County and to giving back to this community where our clients, colleagues and employees live and work.
That community focus is in our company’s DNA: Globally our employees will have volunteered more than 100,000
hours in service this year and BNY Mellon has donated nearly $40 million to charities and community groups.
Here in Collier County our staff are also very active on a number of boards, including two organizations that are direct beneficiaries of this weekend’s fundraising efforts. My colleagues Colleen Murphy and Dave Maksymetz are on the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors, respectively, of the Women’s Shelter and another colleague Ted Corbin is on the Golisano Children’s Museum Board. We also have supported such organizations that are grant recipients such as Boys & Girls Club of Collier County, The Immokalee Foundation and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida to name a few. We estimate that our Naples team has volunteered a total of nearly 1,000 hours last year.
Smart philanthropy is strong and vibrant here in Collier—thanks to all of you. And BNY Mellon is very proud to be part of this noble effort.
