Collaboratory
Legal name: Southwest Florida Community Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 596580974
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Fort Myers, Florida, US
- Phone
- 239-274-5900
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community Foundations
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $31,414,260
- Expenses
- $19,680,699
- Assets
- $183,474,472
- Liabilities
- $8,587,223
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- DAWN BELAMARICH (CHAIR/ PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- DAWN BELAMARICH (CHAIR/ PRESIDENT): $324,289 total reported compensation
- TESSA LESAGE (CHIEF IMPACT OFFICER): $191,379 total reported compensation
- JONATHAN ROMINE (CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER): $178,803 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Increase public, private, nonprofit investments that foster the pursuit of the regionally coordinated 2040 goal.
What it reported doing in 2024
Scholarship funds are designed to meet the donor's intent and wishes. Scholarship awards made through the foundation's, dba collaboratory scholarship program following guidelines and processes that include applications, nondiscriminatory selections, and payment execution processes. The foundation, dba collaboratory distributes scholarship awards directly to educational institutions for the benefit of the awarded student. The scholarship process has been refined to increase multi-year scholarships, to assist all student applicants (regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) by opening more scholarship funding opportunities based on the student applicant's eligibility, and to assist students seeking certifications from technical colleges.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 48% for direct work, and 52% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Reported officer compensation is a large share of total spending, which may reflect staffing concentration and some filed totals do not add up.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 72
- Transparency & Controls: 73
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 85
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 68.9%; rating input score 69
- Program expense ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 81
- Fundraising efficiency: $27.01 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 98.6%; rating input score 99; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 37.4%; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 9.32; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.6% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10.8% per year; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 5 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 68.9% of revenue deployed · 80.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 15 of 16 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $15.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $324K · 23 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $823K reported
- Consistency: 38 of 39 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 173 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 172 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.