Bear Family Foundation

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OVERVIEW: This funder supports a wide range of topics in Northwest Florida, including childhood disease, autism, food pantries, youth sports, and arts & culture. The annual grant application deadline is November 1.

IP TAKE: Bear’s funding topics are broad, but this is a well-connected family that runs a family-involved foundation. It prioritizes grantees who have a connection to causes involving the Bear family. That said, while the family doesn’t name grant strategies on their site, 990s reveal a clear giving pattern detailed below. This funder appears to give grants to grantees that it has supported in the past. While competition for BFF grants can be intense in the Pensacola area, funding is accessible through an online grant application process. Applications that can make a compelling case for multi-year support may stand out here, since BFF funds so few organizations.

PROFILE: The Bear Family Foundation (BFF) supports nonprofits in Northwest Florida through grants in a wide variety of program areas. It seeks to “help support quality non-profit organizations which better the lives of those with needs living in Northwest Florida. “ The foundation was established and incorporated in 2002 and built off of the family business, the Lewis Bear Company, a beverage distribution company that has been around since 1876 and has been in the family for five generations. It is the oldest privately held corporation in Florida and the oldest continuous distributor for Anheuser-Busch. Other breweries’ beers it distributes include Landshark, Victory, Woodchuck, Pensacola Bay Brewery and many more.

BFF has a foundation board of eight family members. There are two generations on the board, including Lewis Bear Jr. as the principal. His wife and their direct descendants and their spouses make up the remaining board members.

Grants for Youth and K-12 Education

The Bear Family Foundation does not appear to have a built-out giving strategy that it shares on it’s website, which is sparse. However, 990 tax filings show an interest in local K-12 and youth outfits focused on children’s well-being. For BFF, this means supporting a mix of public and charter schools, as well as youth organizations that help vulnerable kids and families in crisis. It also reserves some funding for youth sports and recreation.

Previous youth and K-12 grantees include A.A. Dixon Charter School, AMIkids Pensacola, Inc., Big Brothers Big Sisters of NWFL, Inc., Boys and Girls Club-Emerald Coast, ESPSF- Booker T. Washington High School, Cordova Park Elementary, Children in Crisis, Inc., Children’s Home Society of Florida and Holm Elementary, among many others.

Grants for Arts and Culture

While BFF doesn’t name specific strategies for its arts funding, it appears to prefer funding more established arts organizations that are mid-sized and larger. There’s also an overlap between youth and the arts here, but this is not a hard and fast rule.

Previous arts grantees include Greater Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, Inc., Ballet Pensacola, Inc., Dixon School of Arts and Sciences, First City Art Center, Pensacola Little Theater, Inc., Pensacola Museum of Art, and the Pensacola Opera, among others.

Grants for Health and Community Development

BFF’s health grants are broad and address a variety of diseases and issues rather than addressing grassroots health needs as they relate to concerns around equity and health access. Previous health grantees include Autism Pensacola, Inc., Alzheimer’s Family Services, Inc., American Heart Association, Inc., Epilepsy Society of NW Florida, Health and Hope Clinic, Inc., Manna Food Bank, Inc., Trauma Intervention Program of NWFL, Washington County Council on Aging, Inc. Chipley, and St. Josephs Medical Clinic, among others.

Grants for community development appear more focused on temporary housing and shelter for women, children and families, as well as on nutrition. However, there doesn’t appear to be much funding for housing or homelessness here, preferring instead to invest in temporary housing rather than long-term housing accessibility and root causes.

Important Grant Details:

The Bear Family Foundation and the Lewis Bear Company are separate organizations, but the company has its own giving strategy as well.

  • Applying for a BFF grant is very straightforward. The application form is posted online, and grant seekers can apply online or print it out and send in by mail. Grant applications should be sent to the attention of Cindi F. Bear.

  • The yearly application deadline is November, and applications received after this date will not be considered until the following year. Additional materials are welcome to send in with the application.

  • Grant seekers awarded a grant should have those funds in hand by the end of the calendar year.

  • Since 2003, BFF has funded just over 50 nonprofits. It is also very locally focused and sticks to Pensacola and the northwest region of Florida for its grantmaking. It awards grants to private operating foundations, public charities, and private foundations.

According to the foundation website:

At times, the funds requested are part of a much larger fund drive. If the application is approved for a specific project within the organization, The Bear Family Foundation restricts the money to be used towards the success of the project being considered. Depending on purpose, the foundation may require a specific performance area for the funds.

Grant seekers can direct questions to the Bear family via online form.

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