Hoffmann family gives back to Southwest Florida

A family known for its generosity to Southwest Florida really went public this year.

WINK News often reports on their donations, but this year, we got to hear why giving back is so important to them.    

WINK News anchor Chris Cifatte reveals the family’s footprint on our area.

2024 started with a bit of hide-and-seek.

Sharona Acton of Naples said, “I’m thinking those statues have been, disappeared! Where did they go? … Poof!”

Statues were disappearing from Fifth Avenue South. It turns out that the Hoffmann family had put the statues up, and when they sold 27 properties downtown, the statues went…poof!

But subtraction was hardly the theme this year. In November, the Hoffmann family donated a million dollars to the Naples Botanical Gardens.

At about the same time, they donated a large sum to the Sugden Theatre in downtown Naples, and we got a chance to ask them why they gave so much.

“I was a kid that grew up in a little farm town in Missouri without hot running water. I was about as poor as you could get, and I, you know, kept dreaming, and I dreamt the American dream, and that happened for me, and it was a lot of luck but a lot of hard work and a lot of dreaming,” David Hoffmann told WINK.

Hoffmann told us what that dream meant as we sat and talked on the stage of the theatre, which now has his name attached to it.

“As you get older, you dream back. You start dreaming about the way things used to be,” he said. “I was leading my high school plays, and I’ve always been interested in the arts.”

That’s where he met Jerri, his wife.

“I’m in the background. I like to stay in the background,” she shared.

We asked them what their next project would be after this.

“I have to think about that for just a second,” said Jerri. She also explained how there are more things to come and expects announcements in philanthropy and business.

“We like to go in and create scale. And we came here nine years ago with myself; today, we have 2,500 employees and 30 different businesses here,” said Hoffmann. “We think it’s important that Florida’s been good to us in the community in southwest Florida. We think it’s our duty and obligation to give back, and in a small way, this is how we do it.”

The family hasn’t done many interviews about their business or their future plans, but with the hint of more to come in 2025, we’ll be watching and be sure to let you know.