Fondare Communities · Established 2024
Founded by Tony Fundaro after 30 years of community and philanthropic leadership, Fondare turns tested experience into structure, relationships, and opportunity for the next builders.
Discover the story ↓
01The work that shaped Fondare
The setting kept changing—neighborhood, church, city, foundation, country—but the vocation did not. Some efforts still serve; others were handed over or brought to a faithful close. In 2024, that way of building found its home.
A neighborhood ministry became Deep Ellum Church and then Life in Deep Ellum—bringing faith, art, music, coffee, commerce, and community beneath one roof. Tony also purchased both Insomnia Coffee House and Mokah Coffee + Tea, helping to strengthen the neighborhood associations around them. When he transitioned out, the coffee shop and church moved into new leadership; Life in Deep Ellum continues today.
As leaders emerged, Life Communities became both a funding engine for the Deep Ellum work and a vehicle for mission beyond Dallas. It carried fragile work until local leadership and durable structure could take hold. When its assignment was complete, Life Communities itself was brought to a close—a reminder that the mission matters more than preserving the institution.
Invited by Russia’s Ministry of Education and institutional education leaders, Tony worked through Adult and Teen Challenge with his mentor Bill Everett—and alongside Book of Hope—to equip the teachers and leaders who would establish drug-rehabilitation centers locally. Educational seminars on prevention and intervention reached Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaluga, and Chita in Siberia. After nearly a decade and Everett’s death, the work was faithfully concluded while the international Adult and Teen Challenge network carried it forward.
In Patna, Life Communities became the first funder and incubator of Sanjay Samuel’s young church. What began as one congregation grew to include an educational center, a medical facility, and a base supporting churches across Bihar. The work continues under local leadership—an early expression of the model Fondare now carries forward.
Tony supported and led at Munger Place Church, a church plant in East Dallas, then spent four years helping Skillman Church of Christ discern a new future and transition its legacy, preschool, and property to The Hills Church. He co-founded Friends of Garrett Park, where neighbors and partners restored a neglected park into a children’s sports and recreation space for the surrounding community.
Through the Mayor’s Star Council—later Engage Dallas—the learn, connect, serve model formed more than 400 emerging leaders for public life. Its conference drew as many as 750 people, and a citywide partnership with DART, Dallas ISD, and cultural arts leaders turned students’ visions for their neighborhoods into public art at bus stops across Dallas.
At MPI Foundation, Social Venture Partners Dallas, and Philanthropy Southwest, the work moved from building individual ventures to strengthening the systems around them: pairing skills and capital with nonprofits, leading global philanthropic networks, and reimagining institutions so generosity could move with greater clarity, trust, and consequence.
Support for a Prague church plant grew into a Czech-led national effort for church planting, evangelism, and pastoral formation. Today it includes an annual conference for 75–100 planting pastors and spouses, the Replenish retreat for longer-tenured pastors, and three church-based coffee carts that place leaders in the community while generating sustainable mission support.
By 2024, the pattern was clear enough to name: enter early, listen deeply, fund wisely, form leaders, build durable structure, and release the work forward. Fondare Communities gathered that practice into one home for nonprofit incubation, business as mission, and leadership development—so the next church, venture, or organization can stand beyond its first champion.
Raised · Managed · Disbursed
throughout Tony’s career.
A lifetime of stewardship
This is not a projected goal. Across his philanthropic career, Tony has raised, managed, and disbursed more than $100 million—helping generosity find wise structure, trusted leadership, and meaningful work.
02The philosophy beneath Fondare
Acts 4:36–37 · Acts 9:26–28 · Acts 11:25–26 · Acts 15:36–39 · 2 Timothy 4:11
Long before modern philanthropy had a name, Barnabas practiced its deepest form: he used wealth, trust, and influence to meet need and make room for people whose future others could not yet see.
Fondare follows the Barnabas pattern: give resources, lend credibility, stay with unfinished leaders, and release what they may become.
The name describes the posture: build what helps other people stand.
03Programs
Each program is shaped around a different stage of the work, but all are designed to help people build with greater clarity, health, and endurance.
3-month intensive · 12-month journey
For founders with a meaningful mission and an organization still taking shape. Fondare helps strengthen strategy, governance, financial and administrative systems, grant readiness, mentorship, and the relationships needed to become sustainable—while each organization retains its own leadership and authority.
International · Locally rooted
Fondare works with international partners to develop small ventures that can generate recurring income for mission and create meaningful local work.
Summits · Retreats · Formation
Fondare convenes citywide pastor conferences, leadership summits, and restorative retreats—including current work in the Czech Republic—to deepen spiritual formation, strengthen practical leadership, and build relationships that continue long after the gathering.
04Current Work
From church planting in the United States to international mission, sustainable enterprise, and new nonprofit ideas, each expression begins differently but moves toward the same end: locally led work with the strength to endure.
Christian leadership · Czech Republic
A growing mission platform bringing together citywide pastor conferences, leadership formation, church-planting support, and the development of sustainable business-as-mission ventures for locally led ministry.
Business as mission · International
An international, hope-centered social enterprise beginning with two fully equipped coffee carts, developed with church partners that include some of the region’s largest denominations and networks—creating meaningful work, sustainable mission support, and a trusted community presence.
Visit Kawansela ↗
AI · Health innovation
An emerging nonprofit using artificial intelligence to help revolutionize health by making complex knowledge, insight, and support more understandable and more reachable.
Visit Anatomy AI ↗
National church planting · Dallas–Fort Worth
An emerging church plant being strengthened through leadership development, council and board formation, and patient early-stage structure—building the people beneath public ministry before expanding the platform.
Visit Evolve ↗05The incubation pathway
Clarify the calling, the need, and what faithfulness requires.
Build the model, structure, strategy, and circle of support.
Coach the leader and strengthen the work through real execution.
Prepare the organization to stand, grow, and serve beyond Fondare.
Fondare strengthens the work without taking it over. The goal is an independent organization with the clarity and capacity to keep building.
06Leadership
Founder & Chair · Fondare Communities
Tony is an executive leader and founder with 30 years of experience across philanthropy, nonprofits, community development, and social impact. He currently serves as President and CEO of Philanthropy Southwest and as a board member of United Philanthropy Forum. Throughout his career, he has raised, managed, and disbursed more than $100 million.
His work spans Life in Deep Ellum, Life Communities, Engage Dallas, Friends of Garrett Park, Social Venture Partners Dallas, the MPI Foundation, and Philanthropy Southwest. In 2024, he founded Fondare Communities to strengthen and release the next generation of builders.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Nelson University, earned a master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, and is currently pursuing an MBA at Oklahoma Baptist University.
Contact Tony
Mentor · Founder, Fondare Partners
Sara is a strategist, operator, and founder of Fondare Partners, known for helping mission-driven organizations build the clarity, systems, and structure they need to thrive. With a career spent inside nonprofits and small businesses leading strategic planning, grant development, EOS implementation, and organizational design, she’s built a reputation for turning complexity into momentum.
Sara brings a grounded, people-first approach shaped by her Midwest roots and sharpened through years of guiding leaders, strengthening teams, and architecting frameworks that make success repeatable.
Contact Sara07An aligned enterprise
A separate enterprise helping sustain the mission of Fondare Communities.
Advise · Build · Strengthen
Incubate · Form · Release
Fondare Partners is a separate, mission-aligned consulting company serving nonprofits, small businesses, and purpose-driven leaders through strategy, organizational development, operations, and sustainable growth.
Through that work, Fondare Partners supports the mission and long-term sustainability of Fondare Communities—strengthening its capacity to serve emerging leaders and organizations.
Explore Fondare Partners ↗Separate entities · Shared commitment · Sustainable impact
Fondare means to build