The newest board member of the Charitable Foundation of the Islands (CFI) possesses an ideal pedigree for the position.
Melissa Halliburton and her family have lived in several parts of the country. In January 2021, about halfway through a month-long COVID-19 “workation” on Sanibel, “we decided we didn’t want to leave,” Ms. Halliburton says.
They bought a house, sight unseen, and moved in May so their son could start sixth grade at The Sanibel School that fall.
“Best decision we ever made,” she says.
Ms. Halliburton is an alum of CFI’s 2024 Leadership Sanibel-Captiva Program. Shepreviously participated in leadership programs as an MIT student and at one for women run by Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
She found CFI’s program invaluable.
“CFI’s Leadership Program squeezes a decade’s worth of knowledge (or more) into just a few months,” she says. “During our eight full-day sessions, I met every member of city council, the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and executive directors” of nine island nonprofit organizations. Behind-the-scenes tours at each added to the participants’ expanding knowledge base about the islands.
“How else can you take a trolley tour on Wildlife Drive with Ranger Toni, go upstairs in the Shell Museum with the curator, or cruise the bay with James Evans and the SCCF water quality team?” she says. “You simply can’t. If you have the opportunity to join the Leadership Class of 2025, take it!”
It’s just that sort of reaction that CFI leaders hoped for when they created the program, says Dolly Farrell, CFI’s executive director. “The intention was to grow new leaders who can step into key roles as current leaders retire.”
The program had the desired impact on Ms. Halliburton, inspiring her to get more involved in the community.
She joins the CFI board brimming with ideas aimed at raising funds, filling service gaps and meeting the needs of the islands themselves as well as those who inhabit them.
Her application for the leadership program included a dozen ideas for raising money while benefiting a variety of island nonprofits. One of these ideas was the “Captiva Dog Party” which Melissa co-hosted last January with the Captiva Civic Association. Together, they bought together more than 75 dog owners from Sanibel and Captiva and raised enough money to buy 5,679 pounds of kibble for a community pet pantry. Back by popular demand, the Captiva Dog Party will be happening again this year on Saturday, January 11.
Meanwhile, she is busy running her own company, BringFido, an online pet travel and lifestyle platform. The site – bringfido.com – contains some 500,000 listings of pet-friendly places to eat, stay and play around the world. There’s an app for that, too.
Halliburton, BringFido’s founder and CEO, and her company have been instrumental in assisting people seeking lodging and other services during emergencies like hurricanes and floods.
She says she looks forward to her work on the CFI board.
Having traveled extensively for the past 20 years for her company, she says she and her family “bring with us the ability to understand and appreciate diverse cultures, values and perspectives from around the world. I hope that will be a gift to the CFI board.
“I will definitely bring a lot of ideas and energy. Beyond that, I think I can provide a unique global perspective on lots of issues, too.”
About Charitable Foundation of the Islands: (MyCFI.org)
The mission of the Charitable Foundation of the Islands (CFI) is to inspire philanthropy, leadership,
and collaboration for the vitality of the Island community. CFI has served the Sanibel and Captiva communities since the 1990s through the Francis Bailey Society and was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in 2011.
For more information, contact:
Dolly Farrell, Executive Director
(239) 322-3881