A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

Maria Hernandez

Chief Program Officer, United Way of Broward County 
Funders Together Board Member

 

Image of Elisa HarriganMaria Hernandez is a senior level non-profit executive who has successfully designed and administered human service programs, clinical interventions, and research in the areas of health, behavioral health, education, financial stability, homelessness, and emergency services within organizations in New York and Florida. Recognized as an industry thought leader for background of expertise within the field, Maria has consistently executed community initiatives, built community partnerships, and formulated comprehensive programs that demonstrate positive change, facilitating prevention and treatment through evidence-based interventions.

Maria joined United Way of Broward County in June of 2013 as the Vice President of Program Operations. In 2017, she took on the role of Chief Program Officer with primary accountability for the operations of the Community Impact Department, Commission on Substance Abuse, and Mission United. Ms. Hernandez is involved in the development of strategies to educate, engage and cultivate individuals in order to retain and grow the agency donor base and has cultivated several new funding relationships generating over $10MM in new funding. Maria oversees United Way Community Impact emergency response efforts for natural disasters, as well as the current COVID-19 pandemic.

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  • Jack Zhang
    published this page in Board 2023-12-08 14:45:03 -0500

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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