The Hyatt Regency Ballroom is packed, and the crowd is happily mulling around the conference-style roundtables. Nonprofits, donors, activists, workers, and bankers mix company and trade business cards—hardly anyone scans the room for a familiar face to deliver them from an unwanted conversation. SRQ’s Wes Roberts takes the stage and ushers the revelers to their seats. Despite their growling stomachs and the hotel staff waiting in the wings with lunch, the crowd is reluctant to sit down to their meal. The chance to have so many community representatives in one place is a rare opportunity.

“I’m surprised you’re all getting along!” Mark Brewer exclaims at the beginning of his keynote speech. The President and CEO of the Central Florida Foundation is, of course, kidding with his audience, but the convivial air that defines SRQ’s SB2 luncheon is no joke. Leaders from the socially-engaged world of nonprofit work ask candid questions of their partners in the private sector, while the private sector donors outline what ideal participation in the nonprofit world would look like for them and their organizations. This, Brewer reminds his audience, is the ground on which American governance was built. Voluntary associations, or what the philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art of joining” formed the ad hoc, unsanctioned social nervous system of civic engagement in early American society. And Brewer has a point: This room full of public and private entities feels like a modern iteration of the salon culture that fostered America’s take on democracy. 

Connections are formed in a variety of ways at SB2. Sabal Palm Bank holds a raffle, and awards $1000 to the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School. Janis Wasserman has the opportunity to explain the school’s mission to a room full of her colleagues. Brian Mariash has the chance to explain to nonprofits in the audience that his subsidiary of Merrill Lynch specifically caters to community organizations. And the melancholy announcement of the Community Foundation of Sarasota’s founder, Stewart Stearns’ recent death sends a gasp through the audience like a wave.

Consistent themes run through both the keynote address and the panel of local luminaries that follows. Philanthropy needs to move past the idea of crisis-oriented “charity” and towards a more wholistic idea of social improvement. Infrastructure, housing, healthcare—the panelists agree that these are a far more valuable way to allocate resources than feel-good giveaways. John Annis of the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, Carol Butera of the Selby Foundation, Roxie Jerde of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and Mark Pritchett of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation grappled with a host of issues, on stage. The panelists addressed mental health, the ethics of nonprofit workers’ benefits, and the relationship between social justice and the politics of social identity. During one particularly frank conversation on the topic of diversity, Roberts differed to Mark Brewer in the crowd. “Diversity,” Brewer said, “is something that happens to us. Inclusion is something that we choose to do.”

After the panel, SRQ presented its Good Hero awards to individuals who have shared their passion, treasure, time, and talents with the Sarasota community in a way that warrants public recognition. They included two Volunteer Awards to Ann Walborn of Mote Marine and Suzanne King of Selby Gardens; a Staff Award to Barbara Van Essen from Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast; two Board Member Awards to Jonna Keller of Boys & Girls Clubs Sarasota and Ann Anderson of Save Our Seabirds; a Donor Award to Robert Bernhard; two New Nonprofit Awards to Peter Skokos and Chef Bryan Jacobs; and, finally, a Corporate Hero Award to Rae Dowling. 

“I love the presentations at SB2, but the conversations after the event are the best part,” the Barancik Foundation’s John Annis tells SRQ. It would seem that the art of joining is alive and well in the biggest little town in Florida.