With a record $683,000 in 2024 grants, The League Club of Naples has made it easier for 35 nonprofit agencies to fulfill their missions in supporting at-risk children, families, the elderly and veterans in Collier and Lee counties.
At a mid-April breakfast event, the 35 area nonprofit agencies—chosen from a record number of applicants—were awarded grants from the women’s volunteer organization in areas ranging from arts education, to fighting hunger and homelessness, to providing bikes and wheelchairs to children in need. Over the past 37 years, The League Club has provided $7.3 million in grants to 217 area nonprofit organizations.
Mary Ann Lillie, president of The League Club, said that while the grants were not determined with a particular scope of projects in mind, the Community Involvement Committee that screens the applications looked for those that covered a “sizeable number” of recipients or participants in their project.
“We’re looking at where the areas of need are the greatest, and then looking at kind of a range,” Lillie said. “[The applicants] really cover a wide variety, and we tend to focus on at-risk children and families. This year we’ve expanded more into some veterans’ issues, and we always take a look at [programs for] the elderly, because health care is an issue.”
The League Club 2024 grant recipients include Alliance for Period Supplies, A.N.A.’s Friends, Arts Bonita, Better Together Strengthening Families, Bikes for Tykes, Blessings in a Backpack, Books for Collier Kids, Charity for Change, Childcare of SWFL, Children’s Home Society of Florida Inc., Community Cooperative, Dress for Success, Florida Lions Eye Clinic, Fostering Success, Freedom Waters Foundation, Goodwill Industries, Habitat for Humanity of Collier County, Harry Chapin Food Bank of SWFL, Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance, Laces of Love, Lee County Alliance of the Arts, Lighthouse of Collier County, Lighthouse of Southwest Florida, Meals of Hope, Naples Lions Club Foundation, Naples Therapeutic Riding Center, Neighborhood Health Clinic, Our Daily Bread Food Pantry, Pan Florida Challenge, Partners for Breast Cancer Care, St. Matthew’s House, The Immokalee Foundation, Warrior Homes of Collier, Wheelchairs 4 Kids, and Youth Haven Inc.
Funding for The League Club grants come from the organization’s Community Trust Fund with monies raised from the annual Naples Tables fundraiser, club members and community donors.
Membership in the nonprofit League Club is open to women who are current or former members of a Junior League affiliated with The Association of Junior Leagues International.
