Barancik Foundation Awards $5.7 Million in Grants

May 15, 2024 | Sarasota

Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation recently awarded nearly $6 million in grants to support early education and youth development, affordable housing, mental health services, and more.

“These grants exemplify Chuck and Margie Barancik’s belief that philanthropy has the power to positively shape our community and enrich the lives of all people,” said Teri A Hansen, president and CEO of Barancik Foundation.  “Our Board is investing in trusted, long-time partners as well as emerging organizations that are poised to do great things.  What they all have in common is our confidence that they can transform our grant dollars into a real and meaningful difference.”

Education Access and Quality

Education accounts for more than half of the funding, with six grants totaling $3.1 million to improve quality and expand educational opportunities.  “When students succeed, our entire community prospers,” said Hansen of the Foundation’s commitment to education.  Together, the grants will benefit community members of all ages.

The largest grants are $1 million to early learning provider Forty Carrots Family Center for expansion of its mental-health and parenting education services, and $900,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties to support key operational needs and fund scholarships for Club members.  Both organizations are seeing increased demand for their programs, even as they have added capacity.

Other grants to enhance education access and quality include:

Sarasota County Schools – $478,020 to support professional and leadership development across the school district.

Links to Success – $400,000 to expand its educational services for DeSoto County students in grades 6 to 12 while also initiating work with families of newborns and young children to lay the foundation for quality early education.

Minorities in Shark Sciences – $155,000                 to support its Diversifying Ocean Sciences program, which provides experiential learning and mentoring opportunities for emerging BIPOC scientists.

Manatee Literacy Council – $148,476 to increase the number of English-language classes and other supports it provides for low-literate adults in Manatee County.

Economic Stability

The Barancik Foundation Board approved nearly $1 million in grants to help struggling families in the region secure the means to meet their basic needs.

A $250,000 grant to One Stop Housing Cares will support the Sarasota Station affordable apartment community, which will create more than 200 workforce housing rental units in Sarasota.  In Venice, Family Promise of South Sarasota County will use a $250,000 grant to buy a residential building for operation as a shelter, safely housing four to eight families at a time while they work with the organization to find more permanent homes.

Additional grants to help people improve the quality of their lives include:

Harvest House – $228,790 to support operations for its housing and hunger-relief programs.

Easterseals Southwest Florida – $175,000 to support its Legacy Village project, which will provide affordable housing with support services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and to support its Operation1Stride program, which provides horse-assisted therapy for veterans.

Healthcare Access and Quality

Two grants will help growing local nonprofits serve more people with their innovative programs for mental wellness:

Resilient Retreat – $444,869 to expand operation of its Kind Line, a free telephone resource for community members impacted by trauma, and to add services to help first responders build resilience and enhance their mental wellness.

The Academy at Glengary – $200,000 to expand its successful wellness initiative to its new location in Bradenton, where adults with serious mental illness can find a pathway to recovery through friendship, skill development, and careers.

Social and Community Well-Being

To help former inmates in the 12th Judicial Circuit avoid relapsing into crime after they leave custody, the Barancik Foundation earmarked $450,671 for its Recidivism Initiative.  The funding will support a network of collaborative social services as well as direct financial aid for inmates, all provided through the circuit’s law-enforcement agencies, representatives of the court, and more than a dozen nonprofit agencies.  “Recidivism affects not only the individuals who return to custody, but also their families and our entire community,” said Barancik Foundation’s Hansen.  “We’re working with a growing network of partners to help these individuals navigate away from jail and successfully reintegrate into our community.”

Additional grants to foster community well-being were awarded to:

Boxser Diversity Initiative – $225,000 to expand its educational programming focused on tolerance and inclusion with a new, yearlong offering for high school students that will combine a series of immersive learning experiences focused on a cultural theme or topic with a capstone trip to a relevant historical site.

Manasota ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History) – $150,000 to help build the capacity of this all-volunteer organization, the largest branch in the national ASALH network, by hiring its first executive director.

Upward Notes – $125,000 to increase its educational music programming with paid part-time staffing, stipends for musicians, support for equipment and storage, and more.  Upward Notes brings the wellness benefits of classical music into the community by performing in nontraditional venues like jails, homeless shelters, and addiction centers.

Neighborhood and Environment

The final two Barancik Foundation grants aim to bolster the impact of environmental science and conservation efforts on the region.

Environmental Incubator Fund – $80,000 to help provide initial funding for shared working space to be used by several small and mid-sized environmental nonprofit organizations in the Sarasota area.

Climate Adaptation Center – $50,000 to support its scientific work and its communication and outreach to educate the community about the rising risks of and adaptation solutions to the warming climate.

Including grants and initiatives approved by the Board at its first meeting of the year in January, Barancik Foundation has awarded over $17 million in grants so far in 2024.