Collier Community Foundation

Collier Community Foundation

The Collier Community Foundation was established in 2017 in Naples, Florida, operating as a grantmaking endowment fed by local donors rather than a single wealth-creation event. Eileen Connolly-Keesler sets its strategic direction as President and CEO, while the Board of Trustees, chaired by Mary Beth Crawford, governs the foundation's affairs. The foundation deploys capital through a mix of private equity portfolio holdings and direct charitable grants, focusing on community-level initiatives in education, healthcare services, and regional development. Its supporting organization, the Kapnick Fund Inc., was created in partnership with Kapnick Insurance, an independent brokerage, with Douglas Kapnick as a key business figure in the arrangement. A defining inflow came from Jeffrey Provol's $18 million legacy contribution, reshaping the foundation's deployment capacity for Collier County programs. The foundation's AUM is estimated at $6 million, reflecting a relatively modest but locally concentrated pool of capital (Altss estimate). It maintains a physical headquarters on Pine Ridge Road in Naples and holds memberships in the Council on Foundations, the Florida Philanthropic Network, and the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce—networks that shape its grantmaking priorities and connect it to regional philanthropists. The Women's Foundation of Collier County operates as an affiliated initiative. The architecture separates the community foundation from its supporting insurance-brokerage-linked vehicle, the Kapnick Fund Inc., creating a dual structure where corporate-associated philanthropy and broad community giving run in parallel. This setup allows donor-advised and legacy gifts to fund county-specific causes while the supporting organization channels a dedicated stream from an operating business.