Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s board of directors approved more than $5.8 million in grants and scholarships last week. The funding, which was approved at the final board meeting of the foundation’s 2018 fiscal year, included over $3.8 million in grants from donor advised funds, as well as $508,000 in scholarship awards. Among grants approved by the Gulf Coast Board in June were five Leveraged Grants totaling $289,500. Gulf Coast’s Leveraged Grants fund collaborative work that will address specific regional priorities identified by the foundation through periodic community assessments. These grants included: $100,000 to support Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation’s First 1,000 Days Sarasota County initiative; $27,500 to the Gulf Coast Partnership, to implement a system into housing and services for female veterans and chronically homeless women and their children; $40,000 to United Way of Charlotte County to support the new position of collective impact manager; $97,000 to Ringling College of Art and Design and Sarasota County Schools to support the design and testing of innovative classrooms in Sarasota County high schools; and $25,000 to Van Wezel Foundation. Gulf Coast also awarded more than $139,000 in Community and Sponsorship Grants, including a $20,000 grant to The SKY Family YMCA in Venice.

Gulf Coast Community Foundation