About Us

What is the Florida Engineering Foundation?

The Florida Engineering Foundation was established in 1986 to encourage and provide assistance to students pursuing engineering careers and to educate the public about engineering. The Foundation is a membership organization made up of Engineers and those who support the Engineering Profession. It is governed by a Board of 34 Trustees representing Engineers and Engineering Organizations from throughout Florida. The Foundation is authorized to receive and administer funds for charitable and educational purposes under Section 501 (c) (3) of the IRS code.

What are the Goals of the Florida Engineering Foundation?

  • To provide assistance to students in and entering into engineering studies
  • To provide resources to engineering programs in Florida
  • To promote diversity among students entering into engineering studies
  • To raise public awareness of the role of engineering in society.

What has the Florida Engineering Foundation done?

During our first twenty-five years, the Foundation has channeled over $860,000 to the MATHCOUNTS program.  In addition the Foundation has provided over $430,000 in scholarships and direct funding to numerous engineering education programs throughout Florida. These programs have included the Florida Engineering Society Scholarships, Florida Science and Engineering Fair, National Robotics competitions, engineering college student organization competitions, teacher awards and many others. At the same time the Foundation is growing its endowment in order to expand its ability to further support students and other engineering education programs (including K-12).

What has the Foundation done this year?

In FY 2020, the Foundation provided college scholarships, supported the MATHCOUNTS® program, provided educational STEM grant for local K-12 program, supported student chapter programs at Florida’s public universities and state colleges, teamed with ASCE to support their Engineering Encounters Bridge Design contest, supported the ACE Mentoring program, Student Astronaut Challenge, First Robotics competition, and Inspire program. FEF is the custodian of seven named scholarships and ten endowment programs.    Our FY 2020 support exceeded $90,000.

Thanks to the generous support of engineers and engineering-related organizations throughout Florida, the Florida Engineering Foundation (FEF) was proud to increase its support to engineering educational programs in FY 2018.  In FY 2018, FEF provided the following financial support:

  • Scholarships – $36,000 to recipients in the Florida Engineering Society (FES).
  • MATHCOUNTS® – $70,000 in tax advantaged pass-through contributions, plus $15,750 of direct support to competition and awards including recognition focus on the coaches.
  • Continued support to the awards program of the Florida Science and Engineering Fair.
  • Continued support of the Student Astronaut Challenge competition.
  • Continued support for the First Robotics Competition.
  • Continued support for the ACE Mentoring program.
  • Florida Engineering Leadership Institute (FELI) – Supported FELI by funding two $4,000 scholarships for public sector employees.
  • Engineering college student chapters – Provided $2,000 grants to the eight public universities and $1000 grants to two state colleges to support student chapter engineering competitions.
  • Renewed a ten year agreement with the Florida Section of the ASCE to jointly provide $10,000 annually to support an engineering education program, and also result in a fund of $50,000 plus earnings to provide ongoing support of similar programs.
  • Entered into the fifteen year of partnering with SWE to fund one or more scholarships annually.
  • FES K-12 Committee – Provide funding to the K-12 committee to supply its programs.

OUTLOOK FOR 2020-2021

This year the Board of Trustees has established a budget of $90,000 supporting the programs outlined above.  We also want to support new programs that might be proposed.  Would you consider joining our members listed on our website, http://myfef.com/memberships/general-membership/.  To those who have contributed in the past, we THANK YOU and trust that you will continue your membership in the Foundation. Our long term goal is to increase our unrestricted funds from its current level of $540,000 to a level greater than $1.0 million.

The FEF Board of Trustees is very grateful and thanks all of our supporters. Their financial support is the cornerstone of FEF’s programs supporting engineering education and the enhancement of the engineering profession in Florida.