Gulf Coast Community Foundation

In its role as a regional leader, Gulf Coast Community Foundation identifies priority issues through quantitative and qualitative research, creates and funds catalytic Community initiatives that target those priorities, and also connects donors to these issues and other charitable causes they care about. Gulf Coast's initiatives typically involve cross-sector collaboration and leverage additional philanthropic funding from within and beyond our region. Initiatives in which Gulf Coast and our donors invested this year included:1) responding to the long-term recovery needs of those in our region who were most impacted by hurricane ian. 2) convening stakeholders to build a system of accessible, integrated, and trauma-informed services and family supports to meet the mental health needs of children, youth, and young adults in sarasota county.3) convening, leading, and funding strategic projects to improve environmental quality in the Gulf Coast region and educate citizens on the benefits of a healthy environment.4) investing in sustainable redevelopment of the sarasota bayfront through the public-private partnership creating the bay park.5) improving and better coordinating services for chronically homeless adults and unaccompanied homeless youth in sarasota county.6) strengthening the board governance and operational effectiveness of nonprofit organizations throughout our region (invest in incredible).7) helping first graders in sarasota county schools who struggle the most with reading and writing through intensive literacy intervention (reading recovery).8) advocating for the adoption and implementation of the current recommendations of sarasota county's affordable housing advisory committee, particularly exploring the creation of a local affordable housing trust fund. Gulf Coast also funds a variety of grants to support the work of nonprofit organizations in the region. Grant programs include leveraged grants, which fund collaborative projects and programs that target regional priorities in measurable ways; Community grants, which fund smaller projects and needs at regional nonprofit organizations that can have significant impact in the Community; and arts appreciation grants, which provide unrestricted funding to cornerstone arts and cultural organizations in the region.