Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, we all morph into what our communities need. So everyone is a little bit different, does things a little bit different because not every community is the same. So there's like 28 in Florida.
Robert DiLella Jr.. 28 of them in Florida alone. All right, so what areas does this one cover?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We cover Collier County, we would say, primarily. But our donors live elsewhere too, right? So we send money all over the United States and internationally, because wherever they want money sent, that's where we do it. That's where we work with, who's ever in those communities also. But if you said, what's the geographic area? It's Collier County. That's what we really try to focus on.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay, what's the difference in community foundation versus other organizations that are philanthropic? Like what, why and what's the difference?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, like Naples Children Foundation. They're a nonprofit, they're geared, their mission is just under 18, so it's children. Our mission as a community foundation is everything. So we do children to seniors, we do healthcare, economic development, arts, environment Work workers. I mean, we do everything. Other foundations, like you look at, NCH would be strictly healthcare for them. So everybody kind of has their mission, just that community foundations are very broad based. We're here to see what are the gaps in the community? What can we do to make this a better community?
Robert DiLella Jr.. So an organization that you support, would that be ongoingly or would it be one time deal?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Or is it not so? It's not so much ongoing. We do programs and we might fund them for a few years and then they're gonna need to launch at some point and find their funding elsewhere. So we're not like government, we're just gonna give them a check every single year.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Ah, got it, okay. And sorry to remember, who's on your board? A few of them anyway.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Rob Thunderbird, Brad Galbraith, Kathy Ludwig, Giselle Wagner, I mean, there's 16 board members from Collier County who are on the board.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And how often does the board meet?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. The board meets six times a year.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And what's that like?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Generally two hour meetings. We do January, we typically have a four hour meeting where we're kind of looking a little bit more at the strategic plan where we're at, where we're hitting our benchmarks that we wanted to hit. But board meetings are typically two hours where if it's setting policies or whatever's happening nationally in Washington, that could affect the community foundation. We're looking at those things that are going on. We're looking at, I'm trying to give them a report of some of the bigger grants that maybe we've made recently and some of the impact around that. At times we have nonprofits coming in, talking to the board, kind of what's happening.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. January, we did a little field trip. We're doing a big project on the Golden Gate Golf Course that has taken us five years. But, and that was building 250 units for essential employees, rentals for them. And that was with the Richard M. Family Schultz Foundation and Morin's Park Foundation and the county and then rural neighborhoods, who's the developer. The foundation's put in 10 million in that project. So that as we built this out, we could keep the rents lower, more affordable. And so we did a little road trip, went to see what these are looking like because they will start renting this month finally.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. So yeah, I mean, so we put our fingers into a lot of different things.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So that's actually happening now. I remember hearing, talking about it for a while.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh yeah, five years talking about it, yes. It was a long, drawn out project, but it is up out of the ground and the apartments are ready.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And who's responsible for that?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, so the county owns the land, but they gave a 99 year lease to rural neighborhoods. Rural neighborhoods is a nonprofit developer. They do apartments and housing. So they built it. They took the loans on it. We put our 10 million in between the three foundations. And how this will work is at about year 10, when it starts to cashflow, a portion of that cashflow comes back a third of it to the community foundation, a third goes to the county and a third goes to rural neighborhoods. So we will then be building a new fund for housing that we'll be able to use in the future. So again, rural neighborhoods owns it. They will deal with everything that's going on.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. They rent it, but we will actually see some of those proceeds, which is great.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So it will generate revenue at some point.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yes, at some point it's gonna make money.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh wow. I didn't realize that's how that works. Yeah. So.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. It doesn't always work like that. This is a really unique project. And when you talk to rural neighborhoods who does things in Orlando and other places, no one has done anything quite like this, where you get this payback.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What, why would they do that? That's their whole mission. That's their mission. They're not a for-profit organization, they're not a for-profit.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. They're a nonprofit organization. Oh, okay. Right. They do a lot in Immokalee, and after hurricanes they've stepped in and helped us here in Naples, when we've needed a builder type organization to come in, or a developer. So yeah, they're great to work with.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So that's real world impact on low, because I mean, housing is such an issue here. For all the people that work. They're working people, it's really, really difficult. Somebody had to live in Lee County or so far away.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. And you do 52,000 people drive in every day here.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I know we have many of them that work in our salons that have to make that trek. Yeah, for every day. So that's, but I didn't know there was actually anything that was really concretely happening, or that did happen, that can be done to help that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yes, 250 units. And they're anywhere from one to three bedrooms. A lot of amenities, gorgeous pool area. They'll have the pickle bowl courts. They've got a community center. They got a workout center. They got a dog park. I mean, so it's really a nice development.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And how is the criteria determined who gets to go there?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, rural neighborhoods has to do that, but it is, our primary goal was to rent to essential employees. So police, teachers, nurses, EMT firefighters Healthcare, whatever. That's really the priority now. I would guess if he doesn't rent them all off, then there'll be other people that will have the opportunity to rent there also. But our hope was originally, we don't want our police driving an hour, or an hour and a half. Because when there's a crisis, you want your police in your community, not being called in going, "I'll get there in two hours. Hold on to the crisis for me."
Robert DiLella Jr.. So you were involved in that the whole way through there? All the way. Yeah, that had to be something.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. It was our project with the Schulz Foundation that we took to the county saying we could do this. And then Morings Park stepped in to help with that also. Because the other piece of that, well, one, they need work, they have medical workforce in Morings that needs it. But the other piece to this particular project is about 120 units will be built in phase two that will be for seniors and veterans.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, I did hear something about veterans.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yes. So for Morings, that is certainly their mission around seniors. So it's a wonderful thing for them to be involved in this project because of that too. But there was a time Like five years ago or less, where we had about 60 senior women living in their cars In Collier County. And our women's foundation really stepped up and was helping to make sure we could get those women placed out of those vehicles and into apartments. But it's hard because the average social security check for a woman here that's single is about $1,008. And where are you gonna find an apartment for that? You're not a one bedroom apartment, they're running $2,000.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. So it was really important that phase two exists to help us place people, veterans who were living in the woods or living somewhere else and needed a place. Collier Warrior Homes does a great job, but again, you're gonna always need more housing. So this will be a way to deal with that.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Phase two, this is called, that's part of phase two?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, that'll start in September.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Where does that go?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. That goes right on the same property. Yep, right on this 23 acres that the county gave for this project. It's on the Golden Gate Golf Course. So Collier Boulevard. Right? Yep.
Robert DiLella Jr.. At the intersection there of Collier and Golden Gate or further?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I think it's a little further down. It's close to where you get on 75 off Collier.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, okay, in between. On Collier, reduce me 951 or whatever they're
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Going. 920, whatever it is.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So what was that like getting Because you got so many entities to deal with and you got government on top of that. Like how do you get something like that to happen?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I'll tell you, if I was sitting in Wisconsin yet, it would have been done in 12 months. There's no question. We did lots of projects there and we moved very quickly. Here, that is not the case. Why? I think in our case, the biggest problem was the golf course. Because contamination, right, from years of spraying weeds and fertilization. Okay, so you had to get through that. And then how are you going to build out the golf course with these swales for water retention, right? That was a big issue. Then we had found bats were on the property.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And-- Are they protected?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, that was, I think, part of the question. What breed is this bat? And are they living there or are they just visiting? And so two studies had to be done on that and they were just visiting. So they could be We didn't have to worry about them. We didn't have to keep their housing for them. So a study had to be done. Two studies they did on the bats. Yes.
Robert DiLella Jr.. A wildlife expert comes in or what's the study?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. You know, rural neighborhoods handled it. So I don't exactly know who had to all come in to do these studies to figure out where these bats were getting in visiting. Yeah. Yeah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And see whether they're transient or not. Yep.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. So there was a lot around the land itself where I think that isn't always common. If we would have went out and just bought land, probably would have been a lot easier. It would have been a lot quicker. But the fact the county was involved in this and how is that contract gonna look and who's gonna be the developer and how is this gonna all play out? It just, it was a very, very long process.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Because the county owns the golf course too now?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yes, the county has a golf course. They always, yes. They bought, when they bought that land, it was 167 acres, I believe. And the plan was to put the veterans nursing home there, which is happening. We wanted the housing project, that was 23 acres. And then they're doing, I think it's 12 holes, golf course for the public. That will be there. So yeah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. County run. So you also had to deal with changes in leadership at the county level too, right? New people coming in and then you gotta--
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. That delays things. Because you have to get them up to speed as to why this is important and what is this project actually going to be. So yeah, it definitely took longer than any of us would take, but hey, people are moving in this month.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So it's great. Who was instrumental from the county side or from the government side in making it happen?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, keep in mind we had leadership change because originally had Leo in there and he had Nick and he had all these people that started the project with us, then they all left. So then it was get all these new people. Certainly Amy Patterson was supportive and was amazing. The commissioners, Bill McDaniel and Rick Lacostro and Bert Saunders, they were there kind of from the beginning so they understood the project. So then you're working to get the other commissioners to buy in and understand the importance of doing this. So yeah, there was plenty of turnover in those five years.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And that was something that you, what you knew was a need, but you could see that this was a clear pathway that could make a difference for our community. Like we can get this done.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We can get this done, absolutely. And, we've, so the community foundation, that was one piece of housing, but then we did other things in housing. We did a lot of research of other community foundations in big cities like Atlanta and Austin and other places, trying to figure out how are they dealing with housing? Housing affordability is a problem everywhere. And they said to us, one of the big things they did was create like a hub housing organization. So somebody who knew who were the developers, where were they gonna put projects? How many housing, how much affordable housing do we need? If you were somebody looking, this would be a place you'd start.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. So we were able to work with three kind of housing organizations and brought them together under what is now the Housing Alliance for Collier County. So it is that hub. So that was another piece we put a lot of money into to help them get started, get their staff started, kind of create the structure so that if you're looking for an apartment, hopefully you can go on their site and see what's available in the price range in which you have to live, right? Cause we're saying you shouldn't spend more than 30% of your income on housing. So what does that look like?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Then the other piece that we figured out when we were doing our research is many community foundations have like an impact fund where you work with developers. In the early part of their venture. So when they're trying to look at, we have to rezone and we have to get architectural drawings done. The things that they're gonna need before they go to the bank or go wherever they're gonna go for funding. So we decided we would do loans. So up to 3 million, like 3% make it really affordable, help them get started and then they pay us back and then we move on to the next one. So we've raised about 5 million that we have in that fund.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We've done two loans already, both are paid back already. So that was like another piece. So there's all these pieces you have to bring together in the community. It isn't just one project, lots of projects.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So that agency that got created, you were talking about kind of pooling everything together.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Housing Alliance, yeah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Housing Alliance. So that's something that people could go to And see what's available. And they're a centralized for the whole area.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yes, so we brought things together. So if they're looking for How are they gonna afford a mortgage versus what kind of rents, whatever it is, that should be the place you start.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And what's the name of the organization again?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Housing Alliance.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Housing Alliance, okay. Website and all that. It's all there. We'll get that for people because that's something that people moving here, we have stylists who move here from other areas that just.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, it's like start there.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, that's great. Great, okay. You mentioned, you gotta keep an eye on what's going on in Washington. Why, how does it affect you?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, it affects the community foundation Primarily with our donor advise funds. So we have donors in the community who Let's just say they take $100,000, they put it in a donor advise fund, they get a tax deduction immediately, they work with us to determine where they want their grant making to go.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What'd you call it?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. It's a donor advised fund. So the point of that is you get a tax deduction for what you give the community foundation and then we're gonna help you figure out what is it you wanna fund and what are the biggest needs in the community. Let me tell you about the organizations that address that need to help you give your money away and know that it was given away appropriately and that we then do evaluation to make sure that your money is spent the way you want it to be spent. But Congress doesn't like the fact that anybody holds any funds. They want all the money in and out. That's how government operates.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. They don't spend just even the money that they have today, but they also spend a whole bunch of money they don't even have yet, right? We say don't do that. We're saying, have some control and let's not spend more than we have and let me help you give it away the best way that we can help you give it away. So therefore we work with donors, but then we work with all the nonprofits in the community also. Our staff know their programs, they know their staff, they know the good, the bad, the ugly, they know what they need, what they need because they're telling us all the time.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We have a nonprofit directory on our website So people can kind of look up nonprofits if they wanna do that. But when Congress gets involved, all of a sudden they want like, we want you to have to pay everything out. We don't want the donor to take a tax deduction until they're gonna make a grant, all this kind of crazy stuff because they really are just trying to push money into the community, which okay, is fine, but when you push it all into the community, then there's none sitting back here to deal with whatever crisis might come up, right? Like if you give it all away this year, then there's no money next year to give away.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. It's not the best way to operate, but it's how they operate. So they think everybody should operate like government. We fight that tooth and nail.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So that money, even though it's in your hands and you're a not-for-profit, they don't want it sitting around.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Bingo. They want it. They want it out in the community.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And what they're doing to make sure they do that is we're not gonna give him the deduction unless you do this. That's right.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. There's all kinds of games they can play on that. That's correct. And they really don't like the fact that Harvard and Yale and these big universities have massive endowments, right? Where you never spend the principal, you only spend the income. So you have money this year, next year, they highly dislike that. But really, we tell nonprofits, you need to build endowments for sustainability. You cannot spend all your money down in one year and then start January 1st, having to raise all this money again and hope that we don't have a drop in the market, hope that donors continue to give, hope we don't have a recession, right?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Things happen in our society and we just don't agree that every dime should be spent. Like we're about build endowment, have sustainability. Donors like to know that they're giving money to an organization who's gonna be here in 10 years, right? Otherwise it's like, well, I'm giving them money now and then they go to business next year.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Has that been going on a while? Is that a never ending type thing or is it just newer that they started dipping their fingers and don't want it done that way?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Congress, I'd say in the last four years, it's definitely been more dipping their fingers than it ever had been before. Yeah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So they're scrutinizing it and saying, "We're gonna add this rule and that rule."
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, and we've been Community Foundation, our world's been hiring lobbyists and trying to educate them on the roles that Community Foundations play. They just, they look at commercial funds like Schwab and Fidelity and these and they have large donor advised fund assets. They don't like that, but we're saying--
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, there are for-profit businesses that have-- That's
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Right, that have this too. Oh yeah. They have a nonprofit side and then they are encouraging donors to put donor advised funds in their coffers also. Different in a commercial fund. Commercial funds are a little bit more like a bank. So you put a bunch of money in a donor advised fund with them and then you go online and you just say, "I want money sent here or there," just like you're writing a check to a bank. We, as Community Foundations, tend to spend a lot more time educating our donors on what are the needs in this community? What are the things you like to fund?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. So let's talk about how we can help you again and make sure that your money's doing what you want it to do. That's where our evaluation piece comes in. So we're kind of maybe more the middleman, the broker, the oversight, than what commercial funds are. They just cut a check. They have no idea what's going on in our community, any community.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Is there a lot of red tape around the IRS and reporting of all that from your end? Is there a lot of extra work for what you guys have to do?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. There is not at this moment, but they're, I think, trying to make it a lot more difficult for us at times. But so far, I've been able to kind of hold them off and hopefully that will continue because this country was built on philanthropy. It was built on people's time. It was built on people's money. And it's what America is. We have to continue down that path. It's the only way. Your taxes would be so high, you would never be able to survive here otherwise. I mean, the philanthropy plays such a huge role. It's billions and billions and billions that are given from people's pockets into the community to help those who are less fortunate. So we have to continue.
Robert DiLella Jr.. How does our area do compared to other areas in terms of giving?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Actually, our area is really well. There was a study done a couple of years ago by Florida Nonprofit Alliance for the State of Florida. And it showed only two counties where giving was continuing to increase both in people giving and the amounts that people are giving. And Collier was one. And Marion County was the other. So the rest were seeing some declines in people giving. So Collier, I mean, Collier does amazing.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And you've been with this organization for how long?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. 13 years.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's not normal, is it? For somebody to be in a position for that length of time?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I think in community foundation world it is because it's such a great job. Nobody wants to leave because we're doing great work helping donors and helping nonprofits and making a change in the community. It's a great thing.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I mean, it's great that the organization doesn't have a lot of turnover then.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. No, and we don't have a lot of staff turnover. Most of our staff are, they're five, six, seven years. They don't leave once they get in there.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah. What are some of the organizations that you work with locally?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh my gosh, all of them from conservancy to housing organizations. Again, I can give you the whole list from mental health to the arts. It's everything. If you look at our site, you'd see about 273 nonprofits from Collier that are on our website. And then we have all the nonprofits that are in other states that we work with because again, donors want to send money from where they're from or before they have a second house. They want to continue to support that community, which they should. I mean, we're not saying, oh, you're here in Collier, so don't give back to where you came from. No, absolutely give back to them. Give to us. We have a unique twist though.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I come from Wisconsin. I don't know what our taxes were. They're like 15% or something. But then the counties, right? Cause they're collecting all this money. They would make sure that money went to shelters and to food and to whatever those human service needs were. Collier County, however, you're down in Saligard to not pay taxes, right? They do not have tax dollars. They don't use any property tax dollars to give our nonprofits a deal with housing like St. Matt's or homeless or shelters or domestic violence or whatever it is. Everything is raised on philanthropy here. That is not the case in the vast majority of even Florida.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Florida, the average is like 4.8% of their budgets for their counties give to human services. That is not the case here in Collier.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So built into their budgets in a lot of other states is a certain amount for the services.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. In Florida it is too. They take it from property tax in Florida in other counties. We do not here in Collier. We are very unique. Oh, it's County by County. It's County by County. We're very unique here. Oh, interesting. Yeah, so everything is raised on philanthropy. And we did a study two years ago going, what is that number that nonprofits have to raise from people like you individuals? It's 550 million. And that's 15% of their budgets, only 15% here in Collier County has to be raised every single year. Just for these nonprofits to survive. That was mind boggling to see that number. I was thinking maybe it's 100 million, maybe it's 150 million.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, I had no idea the amount that's being raised.
Robert DiLella Jr.. How do I not know that? I mean, how is that not common knowledge?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, you gotta do a study for that to determine that. So we hired, again, the Florida Nonprofit Alliance to go through 990s on all these nonprofits to pull numbers. Yeah, it's a big number.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So even the fact that Collier County doesn't have that or doesn't include that, I mean, that's a, well, it could be a benefit in two ways. Like, hey, we're saving you this money, but we also have it over here that we can give to that too. I didn't know that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, and, I'm not actually opposed to the way it's set up. Because I don't think government really is always good at giving money away. I couldn't agree more. And it becomes very political, right? Like, you're going to commissioners going, oh, my organization needs money, right? And they're in a weird spot. So I kind of don't mind this. But what it does do is it sets us up in Collier County that philanthropy is so, so important to us. How do we make sure that we have it today, tomorrow, and 10 years from now? Well, the way we do that is we build endowment, which is what government doesn't like.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. But you build those assets at a community foundation so that they have it when the next COVID hits that nobody saw coming, right? Or the next crisis that hits that we can't see coming today. You got to have that money set aside to be able to deal with what's happening in our communities. And a study was done for county by county for the state of Florida as to how Much money's transferring right now from the baby boomers down to their family, their grandchildren, their loved ones, whoever, for Collier County between now and 2032 $34.8 billion is transferring. And we're just going, you know what?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. If we could get people to give 3% of their estates to the community foundation, that'd be a billion dollars that we could endow, which would give us $50 million a year, 5% spent, $50 million a year to deal with issues in this community. Nowhere near the 550 we really need, but, you got to start someplace. $8 billion would give me everything I need, but maybe it's a little aggressive. So we're just saying, this transfer's happening if people just would think about 3% going to charity in their estate plans.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That transfer's happening just because life goes on and people die.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Because life goes on.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Money goes somewhere.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. That's right.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So what do they do with it and how do they-- That's right.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. How much do the kids need, right? How much do the grandkids need? What is it you want to be remembered for when you're not on the face of this earth anymore, right?, what are the things that are important to you that you might want to give to? So we can And 3%, it's not enough that your kids will hate you for giving away 3%, right?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, it sounds very minimal.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. It's minimal and it maybe actually teaches your children and your grandchildren about the fact that you had the values about giving back to the community in which you lived and cared about, right? So it kind of can play two things. Teaching people that you care about that they should care and also helping a community which is dependent on philanthropy to survive.
Robert DiLella Jr.. How do you get that out in the world?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, we spend a lot of time with advisors, with wealth management, with attorneys, CPAs, educating them on the needs in this community and the amount that has to be raised because they can talk to their clients about this, right? They're putting together their plans anyway and their wills, so that's a lot of it. On our website, I mean, I public speak a lot. We talk a lot about the fact this transfer's happening and what the needs are in this community., part of the hard thing is a lot of the wealth is Pelican Bay to Port Royal, right? You don't see a lot of homeless in that area and you don't have to go much farther, right? Everything you need on that side of town.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. And so we spend a lot of time educating about there is homeless here. There are veterans that live in the woods here. There are seniors that are living in their cars. There are children who are being abused., like all these things are happening. It's just, it's a little more hidden here than maybe where I came from in Wisconsin. It was a little more obvious. It was on the streets. You'd see it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, it is in here. Yeah. Yeah, it's like Pleasantville in certain areas.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, everybody, and, once a week I hear we live in paradise, we live in paradise, we live in paradise. That's true. But there's also a huge need. I mean, St. Matt's house, houses and shelters I'm sure Ben's gonna hurt me for this because I don't exactly remember, but I think it's like 1300 people or something a year. I mean, it's a lot of people are going into shelters And need help here. Food lines, you hear it on the news all the time., how many people Harry Chapin and Meals of Hope and again, St. Matt's, all these people who are in line for food because they just don't have enough money to make it work.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Rents are high, even for our workforce, our police, our teachers, rents are high, $2,800 for a one. Yeah. Two bedroom apartment here, right? So the working people need help here too. It's not just very low income. It's your middle income people too.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Sure, yeah. I'm still baffled by the fact that our county doesn't have any allocation to that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. No, it's only federal or state money that's coming down through the county that they give away. They do not set money aside from property tax.
Robert DiLella Jr.. But that other counties in Florida do.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, about 4.8%, yep.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Wow. I mean, I agree wholeheartedly. The government doesn't do a good job of spending our money. Right, so. Not good, so.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. So as long as this model works, it's a great model. But how do we, again, it's how do we preserve this for the future and have the resources when these weird, like hurricane hits,? Things that we're just not expecting today.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah, especially because of the last couple of hurricanes we've had have been like nothing in my life. I've lived a long time and we haven't had anything like those, Irma and Ian.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, we've had some big ones come through.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, they've really impacted us.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Hopefully we're in the new pattern now.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, for another four years.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. For another four years, whatever.
Robert DiLella Jr.. 40. 40, whatever. Most of my life and we always had these little,.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Little tropical storms and things.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah, and I never recall a hurricane but it wasn't that big a deal. And then, the last couple really just, yeah. So I see that you're being prepared for those. Your organization is ready for that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We are and we actually have a fund called Collier comes together and we've raised the money for our nonprofits in the county when there are those kinds of disasters. The things I tell this community is Be careful who you give to in a disaster because those go fund me things pop up everywhere. Fake foundations get created because of fraud, right? Like you have a community in crisis. So everybody who wants to, play in the fraud category shows up saying, oh, we're raising money for the workers and we're doing this. No, they're not. So it's like, give it to us.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We're reputable and the county and every municipality we have a contract with, an MOU with that says Collier Community Foundation, that Collier comes together to fund is where people should be putting their money because we get it out and we do not take any fees off those dollars when they come in. So,. Oh, really? In a crisis, we just collect the dollars, we shoot them out to our nonprofits and we don't.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Well, that's awesome to know. I didn't know that. Yeah, that's great for people. People should be aware of that. Yeah, because it's vetted., it's going to the right place and there's no, you don't even take any admin money out. Nope, we don't. Wow. That's great. Because people do want to give, especially during those times. They want to help. They want to do whatever they can. Sometimes it's whatever's hanging right in front of them and it might not be the right one.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Right. We raised over 10 million after Ian.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Really? No kidding. Yeah.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. With people, really wanting to help. And it's interesting, when we get these hurricanes, we've gotten money from other countries, from people all over the United States., there was a Just by weird coincidence, but up in Oshkosh, like a class, like little kids, like first or second grade, they had a penny war and raised money. No kidding. Sent a check,. People do want to give and it's amazing, but just, God, people just need to be careful how they give, who they're giving it to. And just make sure it's legit.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Well, this chapter has been around for how long? The one for Color County.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. 40 years this year. 40 years. Yeah, 40 years for this community foundation. And we have given away 400 million in grants in those 40 years. And we just hit 400 million in assets that we hold right now. And so, yeah, we're kind of on the 40 kick, right? Yeah. The four zero kick.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, that's awesome. How do you manage that? You've met some of the money you manage, how do you
(Laughing)
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Got a good finance team. We have a great investment committee and investment firms that we work with. And then we've, again, great staff that are doing grant making, sending money out the door, working with donors, doing whatever we need to do to get the money out the door. It's great to say, you look at Tampa, probably has a billion dollars in their community foundation. And Sarasota, maybe 600 million. Jacksonville, I'm sure today is probably 700 million. So we're not as big as the rest of the community, many of the community foundations in the state of Florida. But it's great to have assets, but what are you doing with them? That's the question.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. And we do typically 30 million a year, sometimes much more seldom less anymore, 30 million a year out in grant making.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And how does an organization go about, what's the process for them getting seed money and money from you?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, they can apply online. We have grant cycles and it's all on the website, so they apply online. And then we have the staff kind of get it all organized and we have committees of community people who come in and review grants and then make their recommendations on where the money should go. And then we send it out.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So there's a thorough system in place that-- Yes, there is. figures out where it's going out.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Right, and then the nonprofits have to give us a six month and 12 month report on what they did with the money. So that, again, we're assured that they're spending it based on what they asked us for. And they didn't get the money and then decide to do something way over. Yeah, so we do monitor that.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You talked about the generational wealth transfer that's happening. What is that, like, that because of the baby boomer population shift and now those people are dying. I'm wanting on the edge of that too.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, maybe.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So they, having that group of people educated on, I mean, otherwise the government's gonna get Their fingers into it too.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Correct, you're gonna pay tax on it., you like to think everything's gonna go to the kids, but that isn't the way it typically works. There are things that are taxable IRAs and other things that are generally taxable that people are gonna give to the government and then you want them giving it away to what they want. Instead, you can plan it out the way you want. And even in our funds, so let's say that you love kids and you want, you wanna, or let's do animals. You say, I wanna give to an organization that is giving animals away, humane society or whatever it is.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Great, we would, after you're gone, we have the fund, we send a check every year in your name to that organization. And if that organization were to go away, because we don't know where things are gonna be in 50 years, many times we have a plan B that you've given us already saying, if that goes away or changes philosophy and decides it's all of a sudden a high kill shelter and we don't want that, then you tell me, what do you want to see happen? Like you can control this from the grape. Very few things you can control from the grape, but this one you can. So then, that way, we always say, it's your money, you earn this. Just tell us how you want to see it spent.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I never knew that something like that existed. Like that could be done like that. I thought it just had to be, the check goes to them and that's it and it's done just like the government wants it to be done that way. But I didn't realize there was somebody that could manage it for perpetually.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, it can be perpetuity. And some people don't like perpetuity. Some people are like, in 10 years or 20 years, I just want it all spent out. Great, give us, tell us what you want done, which organizations you want to support and we'll send them 10% a year for 10 years and then it'll be spent out. So, we're totally flexible. Again, it's what do you, the donor want?
Robert DiLella Jr.. So does it goes to an organization, it's not like scholarships or some things like that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We can do scholarships. Oh really? Yeah, we do about, I don't know, three million in scholarships a year. We have a scholarship website for the county. Lots of scholarships on there. So hopefully most of our scholarships, they fill out one application and then they answer all these questions and it'll tell them what they qualify for, which ones they qualify for. Kind of pulls it for them and then they can go through those and go, yes, I want to apply or no, I don't want to apply for that. Yeah, so we've got a great scholarship team. They're hard at it this time of year because it's March and they'll have everything ready to go by May so kids know what they're getting.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. But the sad thing is only about 38% of our kids that apply actually get scholarships because we just don't have enough money in it. But if you look at wanting to address poverty, it is the one thing, it is the only thing is education that can get people out of poverty. So we wish there was more scholarship money for kids And they go in Florida schools but they go to other schools too and that's okay.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So people are asking for it. There's a huge demand for it.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. There's a huge demand for scholarships, yeah.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That's awesome.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. And it does have to be four year colleges. It can be a two year college, it can be a technical college, it can be a certificate program.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Awesome. Okay, that's great to know too. Yeah. People that we know. Why, why do you do what you do?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Why do I do it personally? You know, it's a passion. It's, again, I think it's the social work type personality Where you want to make a difference. My master's is in public administration, which, that kind of teaches you to really understand the environment around you for government and others, how about the impact that could be on the community or on us. But yeah, I mean, it's about helping the community, making it a better place.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah. What happened in your life or what led you to start with the shelters?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, that was kind of an accident to be honest. But I grew up with, my mom was a school teacher. So big Catholic family, so you kind of, you have those values kind of instilled upon you pretty young. So, and my mom, kind of brought up her daughters very much about you have a career and you aren't gonna just go get married and you're gonna do something with your life. So that's where it starts. But then when I was in college, I was a little late for class when you had to pick your field placement. And so I picked this thing, I didn't even quite know what it was, but what difference does it make, right? I'm gonna get some education out of this thing.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. And it was at a domestic abuse shelter that was just starting. So it was very grassroots grown up. So I got in to understand how grassroots works in a community, which was, I could not have paid for that education enough for what it did for me. So it taught me how to build it. So then I went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and started a domestic abuse shelter, kind of replicated what we had done in Green Bay, took it there and rest is history.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, it's just been in your blood. Mom was a teacher, which is she still alive?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. No, passed away just seven years, six years ago, I guess it is April 30th.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So yeah. What was your name?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Helen.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Helen? Yep. How would Helen describe you?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Huh. Very assertive, I think.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Where are you in the birth order?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I'm the last one. Oh, okay. So that's the one that's the clown. And I've learned from my siblings. Yeah, I think she always would say she's so proud of her kids and everybody had great careers. But mine was definitely more community based than my siblings. And out in the community doing these projects for 40 years, so it's been good.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Anybody who had a big impact on you growing up that just really remembered--
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I think maybe probably my first boss Which she was a great mentor and she's the one that taught me about the grassroots movement. Because back in the late 80s, early 90s, domestic violence was like people were barely talking about it then, right? There weren't laws about it. People were living in it. So she was a great mentor on that, I have to say, from impact. But I've had great boards, great people. There's been just a lot of people, I think, that have impacted me.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Well, what's it like working with a board? You've got that oversight that's unique because you got all kinds of people on a board to be able to have so many different powerful people. What's that like, that experience there? Because I'm working in a business where I'm an entrepreneur and I don't have anybody looking over, sometimes I could use it.
(Laughing)
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. What is that like? It is great because you have a lot of different people who have had different experiences. So when you're bringing issues to them, saying we've got a problem in the community, a lot of them have connections of who we need to get to or what we're trying to accomplish. But there's a balance. I will say it's kind of an art where you have to learn how much information you give a board so they don't start to micromanage, right? And let you do your job. I need them for policy. I need them for budget and resources. I don't need them for everyday operations. So there's that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. There's that, you're always kind of how much is enough that they understand what's going on, but not too much where they start going, well, what kind of copy machine do you have and let them know. We're not gonna have that conversation.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So. And you have to know going into a meeting Well, your audience, so you know what you've got to prepare for. So you know that this one's gonna be asking me about this.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yes, you do learn that. Yes, and then we spend time with people in this community. Why would you wanna be on our board? Like what do you want out of it? Because that's important for us to know too, as new board members come in, what do they want?
Robert DiLella Jr.. So what would be some reasons why they would be on the board?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I think for many, they love the fact that the community foundation is so broad in all of the things we deal with, versus again that narrow just healthcare or just education or just arts, like we do it all. So they like that and they see the impact, bigger projects like this housing project. We've done a lot in environment with planting on the dunes, natural plants and experimenting with botanical garden and conservancy and what things might work. So they like the fact that we have the ability to do that, that we have the resources to do it And the impact that we can have in the community.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I had no idea, because you do cover a wide array from animals to vegetation to nature, to humanity, just a lot of different areas that you're involved in. Do you have a, a lot of organizations have like their annual fundraiser or whatever, how do you get money? What's the process for you guys?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, we have a women's foundation event that we do just for the women's foundation and we don't have to raise money for women and girls, but that's pretty much it. We're not a fundraising, we don't raise funds like that. Our money comes in a variety of ways. It's donors who want to start funds with the community foundation. They bring assets in We're in wills and estates, people pass away, that brings assets in. We work with our nonprofits, we talk with them about building those endowments and so they place those with the community foundation. So it kind of comes that 400 millions in all different pots and then we take a fee off that.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. On average, we charge less than 1% of our assets. So my budget right now is about 3.2 million. We have 400 million in the bank. So it's not very expensive for us to do our work.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, how many staff do you have?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. 16 of us.
Robert DiLella Jr.. 16 and we'll be moving to the new office.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We'll be moving to the office and then we're gonna hire a couple more staff.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Where's, when is that happening?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. This summer. We'll be in sometime between June and July in the new offices.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So when you came to Naples from Wisconsin, you had been coming here, you had visited a few and then you had the opportunity to come in. What were some of the things that surprised you about the area?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Number one, the community foundation then only had 62 million. That was seemed very low to me going into a community with such wealth. So that was interesting as to why that had happened.
Robert DiLella Jr.. That was 13, how many years ago?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. 13 years ago.
Robert DiLella Jr.. 13 years ago. Wow, 62 to four plus, Mm hmm. 100 plus, wow.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, so that was part of it. I remember like going, where do the workers live? Right? Because when you're coming here and you're visiting, you're on this side of town with that, that has the water and the wealth and you're like, well, where's everybody else living? That took a little bit to kind of figure out after we got here. I was surprised we didn't really have a good needs assessment in the community. And now we have done, every five years now, we're doing a needs assessment with the Richard M. Schultz Foundation and we're interviewing groups around Collier County.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. We have surveys that people fill out to tell us what do they think the biggest issues are affecting this community. Housing, environment, those are the two top. And people are very concerned about roads and infrastructure, but I can't deal with that. The county has to deal with that. So that was a little bit like, wow, how do you decide where money's gonna go if you don't even know where the needs are? So that's what we've been really working on is to make sure that we have a lot of knowledge in the community foundation on what are the needs, what are the gaps, what are we making a difference on, and what are we not? So we have dashboards on our website.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I was just gonna ask you, is that available?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, just go on our website. There's lots of information, lots of studies. The needs assessment study is there. The one we did right after Irma, we had one and right after Ian. So we decided every five years we're gonna have a hurricane when we're doing our study because the key's coming up. So yeah, we have a lot of data that we monitor and have been monitoring so that you can see, is it going up or down? What impact are we having?
Robert DiLella Jr.. So that surprised you, 62 million to where we were and then you're at over 400. What surprised you in a good way?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Super, okay, so what was surprising is that so many people come here, they aren't necessarily born and raised here, but they're very committed when they get here and they wanna be involved here. They wanna be part of the community versus, I'm just coming in to party for six months, see ya. They're really committed. That has been great, it's been great to see.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, they're passionate about here, they love it here.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. They love it here, they wanna be part of the community here.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I get a sense of that, most people here. I'm sure. Many, yeah. This is special.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. And they're concerned, a hurricane's coming, I'm just concerned about my property that's there, I'm concerned on the impact of the community, what's happening, how many households were affected, are people homeless, they wanna know this stuff.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, what else should people know about the organization?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. About the community foundation? I think that if people have an interest at all in giving We can create the type of fund they want. So, and for us, some of our most important dollars are kinda unrestricted, where people just go, here are assets for you, for the future, whatever the need might be. You have to have those dollars that we, the community foundation, can fall back on going, okay, we got a pot of money here, we just had a hurricane, we're gonna pull some money out of that, and we're gonna start getting food and water and things into this community. Those unrestricted dollars are so important In a community foundation.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. But if donors want to be very specific and say, I only wanna give to animals, I only wanna give to housing, I only wanna give to St. Matthew's house, or Harry Chapin, or whatever it is, that's cool too, no problem, because it's helping those organizations specifically.
Robert DiLella Jr.. How could somebody who's just average in this community help, how could they make a difference?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. You know, average, that's the, I think the great thing about the community foundation, you do not have to be a millionaire to give to the community foundation. When you start a fund at the community foundation, we'd like to see $10,000 in that fund. And so we have small businesses who have started them, we have individuals who have started them at $10,000. And then they can spend anything above that $10,000. We like 10 in there because if we don't invest at least 10, we usually don't get it to live forever. Usually it will spend down, because you'll have a bad couple of years in the market or something that affects it. So that's why we like 10.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. If we can get 10 there, usually we can get it to live forever, if that's the goal. And people who just wanna give, like we do a uniform, every other year we do a big campaign for uniforms for the kids in the schools, because parents, that's expensive, and parents can't afford all these uniforms. So it's like $50 The kids get two pairs of shorts A sweatshirt and like two shirts. It's not a lot of money for the amount of clothes they get. So people can send us a check for 50 bucks for the uniform. So they can give in a variety of ways. It doesn't have to be, oh, well, if I don't have a million dollars, I can't talk to the community foundation.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I mean, we wanna talk to you if you have a million dollars, but we're also happy to talk to you if you've got $25 you wanna give away.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So many people here are from Wisconsin. Midwest, definitely. Minnesota. What are some things you miss about that area?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Well, the great thing is most of them are here. So the Midwest is here and people are friendly, just like they are there, which I'm really grateful for, because that would be one thing I would miss if it didn't exist here is, you walk the beach and people say hello to you. You walk wherever you are, people say hello. And that's the Midwest.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, it is, absolutely.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, I do not miss the snow or winter at all. But we have a lot of family there and we do get back. And I'm back there about 20 minutes and my accent is all back, 100% and will stay with me until the next time I go there. So all the states are good. Everybody's got their pros and cons, that's for sure.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What's something you always do when you go back up? A place you go eat or something you always do?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh yeah, there's several places we go eat that way I always do, but we have a lot of friends, because we were there 30 some years. Our kids grew up there. So you have your friends that have been there forever. So that's it. And most of our family is in Wisconsin.
Robert DiLella Jr.. In what area was that?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Nina, Manasha, we were in Nina.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay. What's for somebody visiting that area? What's something they should do?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh man. I mean, you're on Lake Winnebago. So that is a premier shallow lake, like the second premier shallow lake in the United States. So definitely want to check out Lake Winnebago if you can.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What's a shallow lake? What do you mean?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I think that the deepest parts are only like 60 feet. It's very much that. But there is obviously EAA, which is the... Museum, they have a big event for planes. Like 750,000 people will go in and out of Oshkosh, Wisconsin the last week of July for EAA. Yeah, it's a major thing. But the museum's there from the Wright brothers on. Something really interesting to hear about is aviation and experimental. A lot of these airplanes that are coming into Oshkosh at that time are built. My husband built three. So people who are aviation, buffs and pilots, anybody who's a pilot knows about EAA in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Why is that there in that area?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. They started it there. It's like the biggest aviation event in the world, I believe happens there on Whitman Field.
Robert DiLella Jr.. So what's the food that Wisconsin know for cheese?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Everything's deep fried.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, deep fried.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Deep fried cheese. For cheese? Absolutely. It's called cheese curds, deep fried cheese curds. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, we have a lot of butter and a lot of cheese.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Butter and cheese.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. -huh. Ice cream. But you have Culver's here now. I mean Culver's is Wisconsin.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, because that's where it's, oh, okay.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, we'll take credit for that.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, they're popping up everywhere now. Culver's is all over there. Yes, they are. So that's a homegrown one.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. That's a homegrown one.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay, I didn't realize that. Yeah. Any books or movies that have had a big impact on you in your life?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I read a lot of work stuff, so it's hard to say,?
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, what's something you read recently that you like?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Actually, there is one Okay, Jim Collins, who wrote the book, you know that-- Good to Great. Good to Great. He also wrote a small book around it for nonprofits. And so I think that is really important because it talks about mission creep,? Because nonprofits will sometimes chase dollars. So it's like, oh, there's a grant. Let's go, we'll create a new program. I will get that, even though it's got nothing to do with their mission, right? And so you end up, a lot of times programs falling apart and dying because you can't sustain them because you're chasing dollars. So that is interesting for in the nonprofit sector in which I would be.
Robert DiLella Jr.. I didn't know he had another book in there.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, it's like a skinny little thing. It's not real deep, but it does talk about that. But, I mean, books like Bowling Alone, things that talk about how society has changed and the whole issue about people need to be involved in politics and voting and how we set our government. I mean, those are all things. And again, because I have my master's in public administration, that's the stuff you can't look at is where are we at in this society and what are we doing as a society? And people need to be looking at politically what's happening, whether you're a supporter or don't support it, have a view. Have a view and vote.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, Bowling Alone is what it's called.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Bowling Alone, yeah, it was a book written about that, about how people have changed and used to bowling teams, right? People have kind of gone off and they're doing their own thing now, but it's an interesting book.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Okay, I'll put that on my list.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. There you go.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Thank you. Any podcasts that you listen to?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Nothing consistent, I have to say. I wait for retirement when that take comes.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay. If your life was a movie, what would the opening soundtrack think? Oh my gosh.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Come on, I think, no, you know that.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Like he's a midnight writer. There you go. That's perfect, yeah, very good. Good. What music do you listen to when you have some music?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I'm a 70s person. That is, yes. That is the John Denver, the James Taylor, the Boston, yeah, all of it.
Robert DiLella Jr.. All right, good, we're gonna add all those because I always have a playlist we put together of all of our guests.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh yeah, I know.
Robert DiLella Jr.. John Denver, Boston, James Taylor.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. My son always goes, you guys had the best music. I think we did in the 70s.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, good stuff.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. That's really good stuff.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, I'm gonna add those to our playlist. If you could go back to your 10 year old self, what would you tell yourself?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I should have been an attorney. I'm already putting that in for my next life. Coming back as an attorney next time. I think I would be really good at it. I'm passionate and I public speak all the time, love it. And I can convince people of things. So I think that was, I think I didn't set my sights maybe high enough back when I was a kid. But my daughter's an attorney, so.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, is she really good?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. She gets to live it out for me.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, nice, get it down here.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. She was here. She was with the prosecutor's office here, but she went back to Indiana, where she went to Butler and IU. Chief litigator for the city of Indianapolis right now. So she likes the court thing. She likes being court, so.
Robert DiLella Jr.. And so she did that in Collard County?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. She did that in Collard County. She actually was hired a year before she even graduated law school, Miami hired her. And she went to Miami for three years and then she came over here for three years. And then she decided being in our 20s and being in Naples was not gonna be conducive to her social life. True, true, I understand. She went back to Indiana and she likes the seasons.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What do you like about the area here? What are some of the attributes of Naples?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh my God, for me it's the weather. I was cold all the time. I love being here. I love it here in summer. People complain. It's like, oh no, bring on the humidity and bring on the heat any day of the week.,? Like you'd be sitting in Wisconsin and you'd be sitting in the 70 below wind chills in winter. I don't know how they do that. I don't know, it was horrible. So it's gorgeous, the landscapes, the flowers, the only thing I'm anti-snake, that's my only negative.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You never have those, yeah.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, just not my cup of tea at all. Other than that, I'm good to go here.
Robert DiLella Jr.. You don't have to worry about hitting deer here.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. No, and they're little even if you'd be in a home.
(Laughing)
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. They're small. It's such an amazing community and I am so blessed to have stumbled upon it when the Wisconsin Community Foundations were coming in here in February and got to know the area a little bit. So yeah, really blessed.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, well we're lucky to have you. Thank you. You've been good to us. Thank you. You've done many good things for us. I appreciate what you do. Thank you. You have a favorite restaurant?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. I have to say Bricktop is right up there for my husband and
Robert DiLella Jr.. I. Yeah, we're in Pelican Bay too.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, we're in Pelican Bay and it's close, but I don't know, the ribs are pretty good there, I have to say. The ribs are good. So that would be one of our favorites.
Robert DiLella Jr.. What's going on where Nordstrom's less?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. It's gonna be a furniture store of some sort. But they're having a lot of changeover on the water side right now. A lot of store changeover. I lost Ann Taylor and--
Robert DiLella Jr.. Oh, Ann Taylor's gone, huh?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Ann Taylor and Black and White. Black and White too? Yes. Really? Yes. Wow, I didn't know that. They're my two favorite stores.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, they're putting the higher, I saw DeOrgo in there, it's like they're putting this higher, high, high, high and that stuff in there.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Yeah, so that will all change and look different and, nothing stays the same. People always want it to be, it's like, I don't want it to be Miami and I don't want it to be this and that, but, it's gonna change. And the roads have to change here. Driving and overpasses and all this, it's gonna have to.
Robert DiLella Jr.. Yeah, yeah, they've supported all, yeah. Everybody's coming here, no matter, her things are still coming. They're still coming. They're not gonna, yeah, yeah. They're still coming. My whole life. Yep. Our final question. What do you love about your life?
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Oh Lots, I have great kids Have a great family, great husband. I have very little complaints in my life, to be honest with you. And I have to say, I have an amazing staff at the Community We, as Community Foundations, tend to spend a lot more time educating our donors on what are the needs in this community? What are the things you like to fund? So let's talk about how we can You And make sure that your money's doing what you want it to And it showed only two counties where Was continuing to increase In people giving and the amounts that people are giving. And Collier was one. Careful who you give to in a disaster because those Fund me things pop up everywhere.
Eileen Connolly-Kessler. Fake foundations get created Of fraud Have a community in crisis. So everybody who wants to, play in the fraud category shows up saying, oh, we're raising money for the workers and we're doing this. No, they're not. So