Gulf Coast Community Foundation Awards $728,000 in Leveraged, Community Grants

Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s Board of Directors recently awarded nine Leveraged Grants totaling $462,000 for a range of major nonprofit programs and services. The funding will support regional efforts to fight hunger, provide safe housing for struggling single mothers, expand trauma-focused services for children, and more.

The Gulf Coast Board also approved $266,000 in Community Grants, which are smaller grants of $10,000 or less that benefit local nonprofit programs, events, and fundraising activities.

“We are proud to work with these amazing organizations as they deliver outstanding services and transform our region,” said Mark Pritchett, President | CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

Through its Leveraged Grants program, Gulf Coast funds collaborative projects that target regional priorities identified by the foundation and that leverage funding from other sources to achieve the program’s goals. Gulf Coast administers three Leveraged Grant cycles a year.

Last month, the foundation Board approved nine Leveraged Grants to regional nonprofits:

All Faiths Food Bank – $25,000 to support the 2020 Campaign Against Summer Hunger. Gulf Coast has provided advocacy and leadership for this annual hunger-relief initiative since its inception in 2014, when it was launched in response to a regional child-hunger study commissioned by the foundation.

All Star Children’s Foundation – $100,000 to provide trauma-focused services for children in the foster-care system who have suffered child abuse and neglect.

The Bay Park Conservancy – $150,000 to support the design, implementation, and activation of Phase One of The Bay Park on Sarasota Bay.

Centerstone Florida – $40,000 to support the Twelfth Judicial Circuit’s Comprehensive Treatment Court, a jail-diversion opportunity for adults with mental-health or co-occurring mental-health and substance-abuse disorders who are in the criminal-justice system. Gulf Coast has invested $120,000 in the Comprehensive Treatment Court over the past three years.

Easterseals Southwest Florida – $40,000 to integrate back-office systems as part of its collaborative partnership with InStride Therapy, which will enable the organizations to increase their therapy services and revenue. Gulf Coast previously invested a $50,000 grant to assist Easterseals and InStride in merging their management and operations.

Education Foundation of Sarasota County – $40,000 to support the Local College Access Network, a collaboration led by the Education Foundation to increase college access, attainment, and success for Sarasota County youth.

Gulf Coast Partnership – $22,000 to create a landlord-engagement program to help provide safe housing to women suffering from homelessness, particularly women who have been victims of violence.

United Way of Charlotte County – $25,000 to support a collective-impact consultant to assist low-income, female-headed households in accessing a variety of services from United Way-funded agencies in Charlotte County.

Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic – $20,000 to support a clinic services director to increase access to healthcare for uninsured senior women in Charlotte County.

In addition to these nine Leveraged Grants, the Gulf Coast Board approved 51 Community Grants at its meeting last month. These grants of $10,000 or less were awarded from the following endowments within the foundation: Anna V. Pfister, Nellie Mae Koss, and Helen K. Hadden Memorial Endowment Fund; CCDHH Endowment Fund; Community Health Endowment Fund; Ed and Barbara Strobel Fund; Elva Brant and Donald Dirr Charitable Foundation; Katherine Naismith Witten Fund; Kathryn H. Beach Charitable Fund; Miriam P. Raines Charitable Fund; and The Venice Endowment Fund.

A full list of grant recipients is available on the Gulf Coast Community Foundation website at GulfCoastCF.org.