Conservation Champion: Pauline Wamsler & Gulf Coast Community Foundation

By Barbara Mackay | Photo by Nancy Guth | July/August 2021

It would not be hyperbole to call Pauline Wamsler a Renaissance woman. In the years that she has lived in Sarasota full-time, she has had an enduring impact on its environmental well-being and local philanthropy. 

Pauline was born in Munich, Germany, came to America in 1987, and graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. After a career in finance and real-estate acquisition in New York, she relocated to Sarasota to raise her two daughters. Virtually upon arrival in 2003, Pauline co-founded the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, which has grown to become the leading partner for preserving natural lands and water in Southwest Florida. To date, the Conservation Foundation has protected 18,300 acres across Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties.

But Pauline didn’t rest there. Instead, she has embraced a dynamic role in environmental and philanthropic organizations across the region. She just completed two years serving as Board Chair of the esteemed Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and in July she became Chair of regional philanthropic powerhouse Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

Last year, Selby Gardens expanded beyond its original location along the downtown Sarasota Bay. A second campus, Historic Spanish Point, was added to its portfolio—thanks in large part to Pauline. The site also happens to be the former home of Pauline’s  great-great-grandmother, Bertha Palmer. Now a 30-acre waterfront museum and preserve, it protects buildings that showcase nineteenth-century history, notably a renovated homesteaders’ house, a chapel, and an orange packing plant. It also encompasses an impressive archaeological venue, revealing artifacts left by Native American coastal hunter/gatherer civilizations as early as 5,000 years ago.

The property acquisition required extensive fund-raising and organizing, and Pauline was essential to both of those ends. “Everything takes a team,” she says modestly. “I was certainly a catalyst in the process, but there were quite a few individuals at Historic Spanish Point, at Selby Gardens, and at Gulf Coast Community Foundation who were instrumental in starting the process and guiding it to its conclusion.”   

Her great-great-grandmother has been “absolutely an inspiration to many of us,” says Pauline. She is glad her daughters have been lucky enough to grow up in Sarasota, where so many landmarks are named after Bertha Palmer. Growing up, Pauline heard stories of her great-great-grandmother’s many accomplishments, in the area of the environment as well as community leadership and the arts. 

“She was an incredibly impressive woman for her time,” says Pauline. “She was a wonderful role model, someone to emulate.” For example, Palmer became a progressive rancher and farm developer on 80,000 acres of land between Venice and Sarasota, where she introduced many innovations to help the citrus, dairy, and farming industries.

Like her notable ancestor, Wamsler has been an innovative force in the region. The more time she spent in Florida, the more she became aware of the problems facing the environment and land resources here. She wanted to make a difference. We thought we had skills to slow the loss of our open lands and reduce the pressure on our natural resources,” she recalls. 

“From an early age, I learned the important role the earth plays in our health and wellness,” Pauline adds. “Our family was always involved in conservation efforts of one sort or another.  

“All of that contributed to the founding of the Conservation Foundation,” she says. “When I was involved in fundraising for the Foundation, it became obvious that the environment was an under-funded portion of all philanthropic dollars. Fortunately, attitudes have changed and with that change, the community’s generosity toward environmentally-based giving has steadily increased.”

The Conservation Foundation originally focused on water-related resources. “Now our mission is broader,” Pauline says. “We cover a larger area inland, because the health of the water is not just dependent on what happens at the water’s edge but is a function of what happens in the whole watershed.” 

Pauline’s involvement with Gulf Coast Community Foundation began organically, and now she’s its longest-serving Board member. “I’m very lucky to be starting my ninth year there,” says Wamsler. “When I was founding the Conservation Foundation, Gulf Coast was one of our critical first sources of funds, which allowed the Conservation Foundation to do its early operational and acquisition work.”

Pauline says she was so impressed by how well Gulf Coast operated and how supportive it was of the community, that she started placing some of her own philanthropic money there.”First, I was a Gulf Coast donor, then a volunteer. Later I was honored to become a member of its Board. At that time, the environment was not the organization’s top priority. I tried to use my position as a Board member to advocate for environmental causes. My fellow Board members and the staff now actively look for opportunities for Gulf Coast to make a difference when it comes to the environment.”

One of the results of Wamsler’s leadership as a Gulf Coast Board member is the extensive “Water Quality Playbook,” an online manual for cleaning up and protecting the health of Sarasota’s natural waterways. “I volunteered to be on a task force,” says Pauline. “That was one of the initiatives that Gulf Coast developed in response to the charge to find additional ways to have a positive impact on our regional environment.

“I’ve really had a wonderful eight years watching the growth of Gulf Coast,” she adds. “It’s been an incredibly enriching experience.” Rather than calling her efforts philanthropy, Pauline prefers the term “community service,” which she says was always admired in her family. “Whether it was raising money for a school, planting gardens at a senior center, or organizing support for a community gem, all such actions—time and money—made a difference.”

Pauline also believes that “community service” is what makes Sarasota so wonderful today. “The level of civic engagement is remarkable,” she says. “And it’s tremendously important to making Sarasota the special community it is.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION about the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, please visit www.gulfcoastcf.org or call 941.486.4600.