The Community Foundation For Palm Beach And Martin Counties Fights Opportunity Gaps

Since 1972, The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties has been a leader in local philanthropy. The foundation has successfully connected donors with its vast network of trusted partners on the frontlines of the area’s most pressing challenges. Additionally, it offers charitable expertise to increase investment options for individuals, family foundations and corporations in Boca Raton and beyond.

“Thanks to the established network of generous donors and committed nonprofit partners, the Community Foundation is able to support a vast number of initiatives that are nurturing our local youth, improving education and consistently working to grow economic opportunity in our local communities,” says Danita R. DeHaney, president and CEO. “Through these initiatives, we have distributed over $200 million in grants and scholarships specifically aimed at closing our area’s opportunity gaps.”

One of The Community Foundation’s major initiatives is to increase access to higher education and alleviate the debt burden for aspiring college students in the area. Since 1985, over $17.7 million in scholarships have been bestowed to date, for a total of over 3,200 awards. The Community Foundation currently hosts 123 scholarship funds set up by donors, each of whom details the criteria for the recipients.

This year, the organization awarded 117 scholarships, totaling more than $1.3 million to recent high school graduates enrolling in college in 2024. The average award for each scholarship was $10,000. More than 850 students submitted applications this year, making an increase of over 25% from last year.

“The increase in scholarship applications that we are seeing year over year in our community continues to drive the Community Foundation to do what we can alongside our donors to meet the growing need,” adds DeHaney.

For more information, visit yourcommunityfoundation.org.