Katherine Harris and Margaret Wise became fast friends the moment they both moved to Sarasota, and decades later they've turned that friendship into Women In Philanthropy of Sarasota, an organization built to honor women who quietly shaped the city and to recruit a new generation to keep doing it. Their inaugural Soirée, held at Harris's home -- designed after an 18th-century French residence -- pairs a full ballet company in couture St. John fashion stationed throughout the house with a cigar-rolling area for the men and a dinner on the bay, an unconventional format meant to let guests wander rather than sit through a formal show.
Choosing the Honorees
The group didn't handpick its 12 inaugural honorees itself; seven local community foundations submitted 55 names between them, and the founders narrowed the list from there. The final group includes figures like Mary K. Hansen, credited with involvement in roughly 700 charities, and Marie Koval, the first Black woman in her field locally and a subject of Times magazine coverage neither founder had fully realized until researching her bio. Proceeds from the event split between Selby Gardens and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, and each honoree will direct her share to causes of her choosing. Harris, who has served on the Ringling Museum board, recounts a fight to preserve state trust funds for the museum decades ago, at one point handing state legislators DVDs of Great Expectations -- filmed partly at the crumbling Ringling mansion -- to make the case for restoration funding.
Harris and Wise are candid that the deeper goal is generational: both describe being mentored by older Sarasota women when they first arrived and want to recreate that same pipeline for newer arrivals, framing the mission around giving "time, talent and treasure," not just money. Creative director Tatiana Stewart, who owns a downtown boutique, designed the ballet-dancer concept and is staging a related fashion event in October, while communications director Dayle Hoffmann built out the group's website and member profiles.
A Sarasota Roundabout, One Sponsor at a Time
Asked about roundabouts, one of the co-founders lands firmly in favor, arguing Europe has proven for years that they move traffic faster than signaled intersections -- while admitting to two near-misses of her own on the confusing multi-lane roundabout near her downtown home. She and Harris agree the format trips up longtime residents more than newcomers, and see the question, like the hosts do, as really a proxy for how fast Sarasota itself is changing.
What you'll take away
- Women In Philanthropy of Sarasota's 12 inaugural honorees were nominated by seven local community foundations from a pool of 55 names
- Proceeds from the group's Soirée are split between Selby Gardens and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation
- Honoree Mary K. Hansen is credited with involvement in roughly 700 local and regional charities
- The event's format lets guests walk through ballet-dancer vignettes in couture fashion rather than sit through a traditional fashion show
- The founders frame their mission around giving time, talent and treasure, not only financial donations
“I didn't want to make just a living. I wanted to make a life.”
“Get involved in something that's their passion. If it's not your passion, you're not going to do a good job.”
Places mentioned: Selby Gardens, Ringling Museum, Five Points