On January 1, Richard Sisisky began a two-year term as chair of the Board of Trustees of The Community Foundation.
Sisisky, President/Owner of the Shircliff & Sisisky Company, has been a prominent member of the business and civic community in Jacksonville for three decades.
He has served in numerous leadership positions, including the boards of Stein Mart, Inc. where he was the lead director; Baptist Health System (chair), Jacksonville; The Bolles School; WJCT; United Way of Northeast Florida; Jewish Federation of Jacksonville (president); and the Jewish Foundation of Jacksonville (president). He was the founding chair of both the Jacksonville Children’s Commission and the Haskell Public Policy Institute of Jacksonville University. Mr. Sisisky was a 1999 Humanitarian Award Recipient of the National Conference for Community & Justice, and was recognized as the 2015 Florida Hospital Association Trustee of the Year.
At The Community Foundation, he has served on the board since 2017, including as chair of the Program-Related Investments Committee, which oversees The Community Foundation’s growing impact investing program, including the Local Capital Pool. He succeeds Michael DuBow, who continues his service as chair of the governance committee.
As Sisisky begins his leadership as chair, President Isaiah M. Oliver sat down with him for our podcast, Forever Forward, to talk about how he first came to know the Foundation and why he believes in giving back.
The following is an edited summary of that conversation.
Isaiah: Welcome, Richard. Would you please share the story of how you first got involved with The Community Foundation?
Richard: Sure, I’d be happy to. When I moved here, I was 33 years old and didn’t know anybody in town except Carol and Bob Shircliff, which is a pretty good start if you’re going to move to Jacksonville.
Then-President of the The Community Foundation Andy Bell was in our office every week while Bob served as chairman of the Foundation. Bob walked into my office one day in 1988 and said, “I need a check.” I asked, “For what?” He said, “The Community Foundation.”
And it was a big check.
And he said, “I need it, and I’m going to tell you why.” He explained the whole idea about donor-advised funds and the importance role of the Foundation, which I’d never heard of. It sounded like a great idea, and Kimberly and I have had a fund there since 1988.
Isaiah: Well, now that we know how you were kind of pushed into this work, tell us a little bit about why philanthropy is important to you personally.
Richard: Philanthropy is just part of who I am—who my family is. The lessons you learn early are the ones that sink in the deepest. Watching your grandparents and parents give money to help people, help organizations… if you grow up with that, it becomes part of your natural state of being.
For Kimberly and me, we’ve been fortunate. We’ve had the time and resources to dedicate to many charitable organizations—first in Virginia and now in our home of 38 years, Jacksonville, Florida.
Isaiah: That’s a lifetime of understanding philanthropy—with the help of a gentle nudge from your partner.
Richard: The gentle nudge was on how to do it better—how to make it more meaningful, more impactful and how to do it with others who are philanthropically minded. That’s when I started learning about The Community Foundation and its central role in the community
We were always active in different things—whether it was the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Foundation, which is planned giving in the Jewish community. The Community Foundation was very helpful in to help them get up and running. Giving isn’t so much an obligation as something you need to do.
In Hebrew, we say tzedakah. It means righteousness—not charity. Similar, but not exactly the same. I’ve found that when you do it, the more you do it, the better you feel. The more we’ve given away, the better we feel all the time.
Isaiah: People often say that philanthropy is about time, talent, and treasure. You’ve given some significant time to The Community Foundation—you’ve been on the board now about 10 years. What have you learned as a trustee that you wish more people understood?
Richard: Great question. What I’ve come to appreciate even more on the board is the breadth, scope, and scale of what the Foundation does. It touches people across our region in so many ways—through permanent funding with endowed funds, discretionary funding, and helping focus donors on community-wide needs that are hard to meet themselves.
That’s why giving circles are important—and focus areas, where we go like a laser to focus on not only financial resources, but technical skills, leadership, and a convening role. That’s an important role in town. When the Foundation calls, people come.
Isaiah: You’re stepping into chairmanship at a critical time for the Foundation—we’re about to step into a new strategic plan. Before we get into the future, let’s look back at the last five-year plan. What accomplishments stand out?
Richard: Growing the Foundation’s resource base was important—it was part of the strategic plan.
Also, the focus on neighborhoods……doing good closer to where the service meets the need.
As a part of that initiative, we have a Program-Related Investments (PRI) Committee, and we’ve invested or committed about $7.6 million so far—supporting affordable housing, workforce housing, Black and Latino businesses, and a variety of things where we provide the funding that is extraordinarily difficult to get in the capital stack for businesses or real estate investments. Where often step in where banks won’t go. We look at it as a long-term investment. Properly placed small amounts of capital make a huge difference in this area. We’re set up generally to get our money back over years, but then provide it and recycle it again—doing good with it again. We bring those forces to bear for multiple donors who want to invest in that area. So we’re investing philanthropic resources, and most importantly, in some ways, providing the technical resources—the professional staff we have are experts in this area.
Donors really can’t do that on their own—it would require a whole staff of people that we already have. By focusing on donor needs, community needs, and bringing —the social capital, the money, and the expertise to bear on important issues, we can help solve some of those problems.
Isaiah: It’s inspiring to look back at that work. So for my last question—when you look forward, what are you most hopeful about for the Foundation and for the region?
Richard: First, I hope we continue to grow, not because it’s good that we grow in and of itself, but that we can do more good—bringing more donors into the fold, leading people to understand that we can bring resources to bear that will enable them to be more effective philanthropists. Their dollars will go further and help solve community-wide problems.
As we have been from the beginning, we remain donor-centric.
Donors decide where they want their money to go, and we assist them, and so we’re excited about doing more of that. We’re at $800 million in assets now, so we have enough scale to do what we need to do. But it’s never enough in a community that’s growing quite as fast as this area.
Isaiah: Thanks so much for joining us today, Richard. I’m looking forward to working more closely with you during your time as chair.
Richard: Thank you. I’m looking forward to it as well, Isaiah.