We all know the end of the year is a time for reflection: a look back on the highs and lows of the last 365 days, contemplating what it means for the year ahead. As we count down to 2026, we’re celebrating a different kind of reflection: the one you see in a mirror. Look at what you made possible, Miami. 

Below, we offer some highlights from 2025 and our gratitude for the many thousands of you who showed up for this community through your time, talents, passion, and generosity. 

The Miami Foundation’s mission is to build a community where everyone can thrive. It takes all of us – every philanthropist, nonprofit leader, volunteer, and engaged community member – working and giving together to shape Miami into the vibrant, magical city we know it can be. Let’s take a look at what we accomplished together this year. 

2025-27 Community Grants

We kicked off the year by opening our Foundation’s signature grant program, Community Grants, which invests in Miami’s greatest opportunities and most pressing issues. Amid an increasingly challenging funding landscape, and at a time when most grant programs are invite-only, Community Grants remains open to everyone’s ideas — designed to surface the community’s boldest thinking and share it more broadly.

We recognize that funding alone cannot meet every need. That reality shapes how we design Community Grants as a resource for the broader community — one intended to deliver value beyond any single funding decision by strengthening organizations, distilling their ideas, and sharing them with as many potential donors as possible. To that end, we hosted nearly 200 community leaders across three in-person Community Engagement sessions in February to help nonprofits bolster their applications and to surface insights from across the community. 

In all, 100 community members reviewed more than 900 proposals, representing Greater Miami’s boldest ideas for impact. Ultimately, advisors selected 127 organizations to receive more than $7 million in multi-year, general operating support over the next two years. But beyond the grant cycle itself, those 900 proposals lead to insights, introductions, and funding partnerships that help our Foundation support bolder, smarter philanthropy for our community year-round.

Launching Press Forward South Florida

Our local journalists and storytellers help us understand everything from what’s happening in our schools, where to volunteer, and when to hold our leaders accountable, to what to do on the weekend. Communities that lack local news coverage remain in the dark as abuses go unchecked, and corruption flourishes. In short, a thriving Greater Miami cannot exist without a thriving local news ecosystem.

That’s why in February, with $3 million in seed funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, we announced the launch of Press Forward South Florida in partnership with other community foundations across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties.  

A local chapter of the national Press Forward effort (also housed at The Miami Foundation), this initiative ensures everyone has the information they need to take charge of their lives and our shared future, no matter where they live or what language they speak at home. 

As part of that launch, nearly 1,500 South Floridians helped us conduct an extensive assessment of our region’s existing media landscape and news and information needs through individual interviews, a regional survey, media diaries, and focus groups. 

10th annual State of Black Philanthropy

For the last decade, our Foundation has honored the rich legacy of leadership and generosity within Miami’s Black community through our State of Black Philanthropy. We commemorated the event’s milestone 10th anniversary in Historic Overtown on the week of May 20 to call attention to the 160th anniversary of Florida’s Emancipation Day. In the spirit of this pivotal moment of Black liberation, this year’s event – and complementary report – centered Black Miami’s freedom to live, thrive, and write the future. 

During our event, we turned the spotlight on our 2025 Honorees: Valencia Gunder (The Smile Trust, The Black Collective), Cornell Crews Jr. (The Community Reinvestment Alliance of Florida), Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields (The Black Archives), and philanthropists Tracey Robertson Carter and Christopher Carter, five honorees who have powerfully demonstrated love in action, uplifting communities and driving meaningful change. 

Our Foundation remains steadfast in our commitment to building a stronger, more equitable Miami. This cannot be done without a thriving Black community. 

The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation’s 10^th Anniversary

In May 2015, Related Group CEO Jorge M. Pérez and his wife, Darlene, launched The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation, an expression of their deep commitment to charitable giving as signatories of the Giving Pledge and a way to establish a permanent legacy that their children can carry forward.

This year, we celebrated 10 years of partnership and impact, including the $73 million that The Pérez Family Foundation has invested in organizations and initiatives across a multitude of issue areas.

In the fall, past and present CreARTE grantees congregated at the landmark Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) for the inaugural Pérez Grantee Partners Summit, a day of connection, creativity, collaboration, and celebration.

In celebrating the Pérez Family Foundation’s 10th anniversary, we also celebrated a relationship with the Pérez family that stretches back more than three decades – and their ongoing, shared commitment to building a Miami where everyone can thrive.

Miami Fellows Class XII

At the heart of a thriving Miami are the individuals who choose to lead with purpose: those who turn vision into action, who see challenges as opportunities, and who bring people together to create lasting change. The Miami Fellows program has long been one of the Foundation’s most powerful tools for nurturing that kind of leadership.

In 2025, we announced the Miami Fellows Class XII, a group of values-driven professionals 45 and under who are ready to bring Miami into its next chapter. This highly competitive process began with a pool of 169 applications. Twenty-three advisory committee members then helped us identify the 18 extraordinary leaders who make up Miami Fellows Class XII.

Give Miami Day 2025

Thanks to your generosity and dedication to local nonprofits, we took Give Miami Day to new heights in 2025. We opened Early Giving a day sooner and kicked off a week of generosity with the inaugural Give Miami 5K + Festival along the downtown Miami waterfront.  

Through the 5K, more than 2,600 runners donated over $135,000 to run in support of more than 300 nonprofits in our community. At the festival, 20 nonprofits spotlighted local issues and the work they’re doing to address them, and six local food and drink vendors donated a portion of the day’s sales to local nonprofits. Collectively, our community raised more than $883,000 for Miami’s nonprofits leading up to and during the event. We end the year with deep gratitude to Asher Raphael and the Raphael Family Foundation for making this incredible inaugural event possible. 

Each year, Give Miami Day serves as a testament to the boundless generosity that resides within the hearts of Miami’s residents. It’s a day when everyone comes together across all lines of difference to strengthen our community, act as a changemaker, and shape a Greater Miami that we’re proud to call home. 

This year’s Give Miami Day serves as the ultimate proof of what we’re able achieve when united. Thank you for what you made possible for this community.