Debbie Mason

President of Tidewell Foundation

Florida native Debbie Mason has a career history that’s marked with success—President and CEO of United Way of North Central Florida, CEO of a healthcare foundation, and so much more. Yet her current position as President of the Tidewell Foundation suits her best. “It just takes all of my prior experiences and wraps them up, then puts them in the right place,” she says.

“I was always volunteering for nonprofits around environmental and children’s causes,” says Mason. “Particularly children in the foster care system.” As Mason’s career put her into management positions, she helped her companies become more visible in the community, and that included having fellow executives and employees engage with volunteerism. From there, she became more involved in the business of nonprofits and sought to use her strategic planning, marketing, and fundraising abilities to build up those organizations. In 2019, she joined the Tidewell team.

Tidewell Hospice has been around since 1980 but has grown significantly in the past few decades. Today, it serves more than 1,100 patients daily in Sarasota and the surrounding counties (Mantatee, DeSoto, and Charlotte). Tidewell’s goal is to provide quality, dignified end-of-life experiences, regardless of someone’s ability to pay.

The Tidewell Foundation, Inc. was created a year ago to be an independent charitable foundation that ensures perpetual philanthropic support to Tidewell Hospice and the healthcare companies within the nonprofit family. In addition to her role with the Foundation, Mason serves as Executive Vice President of Tidewell Hospice. 

A misconception about Tidewell Hospice, Mason explains, is that it only provide services for someone right before they die. Tidewell does provide those services, but it also provides palliative care long before someone qualifies for hospice care. And it offers free grief services to the community, both for adults and for kids 5-18 through the Blue Butterfly Family Grief Center. If there’s a deadly car accident on I-75 or people die in a boating accident in Sarasota Bay, first responders recommend that survivors and family members work with Tidewell.

“About 8,000 kids a year in our four-county region lose a parent,” she says. “We provide free grief services for the entire family and offer them a community of children and families going through the same thing.” 

Mason’s challenge is to raise enough funds to cover the cost of all Tidewell does. “Right now, it’s more than $5 million per year. And we need to exponentially grow that because the need is outpacing our ability to deliver free grief services right now. And Tidewell has new services to offer.” The pandemic made it hard to raise major gifts. Too many philanthropists weren’t interested in using Zoom that way, which felt too techy or corporate.

Though once people talk to Mason face to face, they get it. And they find ways to get involved. “A lot of people don’t realize that their passion for art, music, veteran services, LGBTQ care, children’s care, charity care, and more is a direct connect with what we do to help the lives of nearly 1,200 people a day.” If you add in the home health population served, Tidewell impacts 3,500 patients a day. 

Mason says her anthem is to tell the story of the beauty and impact of everything that Tidewell Hospice does, and then help raise the money to do more of it. “The people here are so mission-focused,” she raves about her team. “We’re never resting on our laurels. We’re always asking, ‘What can we do better? How do we reach more people?’”

Debbie Mason, CFRE, APR, CPRC, FELLOW PRSA
President
Tidewell Foundation
5955 Rand Blvd, 
Sarasota, FL 34238
(941) 552-7546
dmason@tidewellfoundation.org
tidewellfoundation.org