Community Foundation of Sarasota County
/OVERVIEW: For its grants that can be accessed through unsolicited applications, this funder is most interested in homelessness, poverty, literacy, and education, though it also funds work related to animals, the environment and the arts. These grants are limited to the Florida counties of Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto.
IP TAKE: This is a major funder in Southwest Florida that likes to partner with community stakeholders in order to “include building upon their strength and capacity to ensure our donors’ charitable dollars create meaningful impact through our nonprofit resources, workshops and trainings, and volunteer consultants.” CFSC also connects local advisors with grantees and local givers to provide “impact-orientated support, information, and expertise on planned giving and estate planning.”
Interestingly, this community foundation says that if you can’t find a program that overlaps with your project, then they advise filling out their grant inquiry form to learn about up and coming grant opportunities. CFSC welcomes contact - just does so through one of their many avenues for contact. According to IP’s phone conversation with CFSC, it’s website will be undergoing a major redesign, so stay tuned for developments and reach out if you have questions.
PROFILE: The Community Foundation of Sarasota County (CFSC) is based in Sarasota, Florida, and was founded in 1979 by the Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council. It has assets of over $460 million, more than 1,570 charitable funds, and regularly gives away at least $35 million in grants and scholarships per year. The foundation prioritizes helping at-risk people challenged by affordable housing and homelessness, education and literacy through multi-partner efforts, taking a “two-generation (2Gen) approach” that works to help “both children and their parents to break the cycle of poverty through education, reliable economic supports, social capital, and health and wellbeing.”
Like most community foundations, CFSC works with local donors and grantseekers to bring change at the local level. However, rather than have programs dedicate to specific causes, CFSC has programs dedicated to themes of giving, which have a wide range of opportunities within each. Because IP organizes funder guides by distinct issue areas rather than holistic themes, please find a break down of giving below.
Grants for Literacy, Early Childhood and K-12 Education and Economic Development
CFSC offers education and literacy grants through it’s Empowerment and Success program, which takes an “approach to empowerment involves collaborating with community partners, leveraging their expertise, and connecting this expertise to meet the needs of individuals.” This program provides support for Literacy Support, Student Enrichment, Scholarship Opportunities, Career Development & Advancement and Lifelong Connections, which refers to a variety of outreach programs and campaigns that are “designed to welcome, inform, and unite adults such as”, such as ProjectPRIDE’s Brunch Show and Outreach Programs, Senior Friendship Center’s Adult Day Care, and Financial Literacy training with Project 180, among many others.
CFSC’s grants for education, in particular, emphasize literacy at all ages, as well as helping teachers and schools improve literacy outcomes. CFSC sees itself as a community leader on the literacy front, having created a “collaborative initiative to address barrier to student success through the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading.” Taking a 2Gen approach to literacy, the foundation works to help children become prepared to “attend school, continue to learn during summer breaks, and the adults in their families are also supported in learning and career pursuits.”
To address certain learning disabilities, CFSC established the Strauss Literacy Initiative in 2019 in order to “help children and families, alongside teachers learn to identify dyslexia and developing learning and instruction skills to make improvements in reading proficiency.”
CFSC also offers EdExploreSRQ grants, for which the foundation has committed $1 million over 10 years to explore solutions for students in low-income communities. This program has a rolling online application process so that teachers may apply for grants of up to $5,000 at any time of the year. The program partners with the Sarasota County School District, Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County, Science and Environment Council of Southwest Florida, Education Foundation of Sarasota County, and the Patterson Foundation to benefit Sarasota County students.
This community foundation also makes related grants through a wide range of funds and scholarships for college-bound students.
Grants for Disaster Relief, Health, Nutrition, Animals, Community Development and the Environment
CFSC provides emergency grants for disaster relief through various disaster and emergency relief funds, which also addresses emergency housing and natural disasters. Suncoast Disaster Recovery Grants are another avenue for emergency funding.
The foundation also provides emergency grants to students, which were established by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County in partnership with The Patterson Foundation to provide “last-resort, one-time funding for local students that pays for critical items necessary to keep students in school and ready to learn, such as food, school supplies, and vision care.
For over 20 years through the Season of Sharing, CFSC has raised and given “more than $30 million to more than 38,000 households so that they can remain in their home when an emergency strikes”, helping with costs related to homelessness, housing accessibility, child care, and rent, among many other related concerns.
Health grants also occur through this area of giving. CFSC health grants tend to focus on pediatric mental health through a long-standing partnership with The Florida Center for Early Childhood Development, while providing health and human services grants. Since Fall 2020, CFSC has provided more than $1 million to 47 nonprofit organizations each serving one or several populations: “geographically underserved neighborhoods, communities of color, immigrants, refugees, and English language learners, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+ communities, and single mothers, among others.”
Sarasota County, blessed with natural riches and some of the best beaches in the U.S., reflects several environmental needs in the Gulf Coast. CFSC has supported efforts to help homes become greener and more sustainable. It has also invested in solar and green energy across the Gulf Coast. As a result of that work, CFSC funds a pilot program in partnership with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens to “marry their forthcoming solar array as a launching pad for a new curriculum and career path program for local students.” CFSC also supports paid internships for college students who want to explore careers through the foundation’s Environmental Discovery Awards Program. Funding here appears to be limited to educational and sustainability opportunities rather than intensive, direct funds to specific environmental issues like watersheds or beach restoration.
Previous grantees range widely through these areas of giving.
Grants for the Arts and Higher Ed
Sarasota is renowned across the Southeast United States for it’s long-standing art scene, which offers a range of opportunities for students, as well as for arts leaders, to get involved. While CFSC has a variety of education and scholarship opportunities listed above, it also funds arts leadership internships with local mentors. CFSC also participates in the Diversity in Arts Leadership Internship.
Other Grant Opportunities
CFSC offers free workshops and volunteer consultants to nonprofits. Around 80 to 100 nonprofit staff and board members attend these workshops and training sessions each month. The funder also holds endowment funds for more than 80 local nonprofits. It offers meeting rooms to accommodate between 20 and 100 attendees at three locations as well.
Important Grant Details:
Literacy-support is a major issue for this funder, though it funds other areas as well. The foundation’s assets have been growing steadily in recent years. View current financial information here.
This funder has a streamlined application process that makes applying straightforward; however, grantmaking focuses only on Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties. Groups with active profiles in The Giving Partner, an online database of nonprofit information, can apply for immediate emergency needs online as well.
The foundation recommends that new grant seekers first discuss needs with Patricia Martin, the director of grants and scholarships.
Literacy-support is a major issue for this funder, though it funds other areas as well.
It makes grants through donor-advised and field-of-interest funds that address issues like education, arts and culture, and health and human services. However, these funds do not accept unsolicited applications.
General questions can be called into the foundation staff at info@cfsarasota.org or (941) 955-3000. The address is 2635 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, Florida, 34237.
Keep up with foundation news and events here.
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