Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation — a private family foundation based in Sarasota dedicated to strengthening the community — has awarded nearly $11.3 million in grants to more than 30 local organizations in its 2026 winter grant round. Funding will support everything from workforce housing for artists to professional staffing for a growing children's museum.
“Lasting progress comes from investing in the people and organizations closest to the work,” Barancik Foundation President and CEO John Brothers says in a statement. “These grants support strong partners that understand their communities and are creating pathways to stability, opportunity and belonging.”
Among the recipients are two groups that received grants over the million-dollar mark:
- All Faiths Food Bank received $2.5 million to support the relocation and expansion of its DeSoto Food and Resource Center in Arcadia. The planned new location will combine a full-choice market with increased food-storage capacity, while offering nutrition education, benefits assistance and other services from partner organizations in DeSoto County.
- One Stop Housing Cares, which helps prevent homelessness, was awarded $1.2 million toward creating Artscape, a workforce housing community for artists, performers and arts-sector employees that is in development. Located in the 2300 block of N. Tamiami Trail, the complex will contain 75 affordable apartments. Affordable housing developer One Stop Housing will build and manage the property, while Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County will handle artist engagement and future arts programming.
Here are the other winter grant recipients, listed in order of the grant amount:
- Sarasota County Schools was granted $840,000 to bring Junior Achievement’s 3DE program to Riverview and Wellen Park high schools. The program gives students access to interdisciplinary, case-based learning linked to local employers and organizations.
- Community Assisted & Supported Living, or CASL, received $750,000 to support Legacy Village, an affordable housing complex in Bradenton for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In partnership with Easterseals Southwest Florida, Legacy Village will promote skills development, supportive employment and community inclusion.
- The Boys & Girls Clubs of Manatee County was given $570,000 toward its Great Minds Great Futures mental health and wellness program, which provides mental health support using trauma-informed approaches at its five clubs.
- Easterseals Southwest Florida was awarded $500,000 toward building the Malcolm Family Autism Center of Excellence, which will expand Easterseals’ educational and supportive services in a new facility. Previously, Barancik Foundation invested $421,500 in the project’s program expansion.
- Manasota ASALH, which promotes Black history and culture, was granted $450,000 to build organizational capacity to meet growing demand for its Freedom School and other educational programming. Freedom School, which offers after-school and weekend programs, is a free community initiative enabling students in kindergarten through 12th grade to learn about Black culture and history. The grant includes a $150,000 match to help grow broader community support.
- Teen Court of Sarasota was given $400,000 to expand its family and support services, bilingual staffing and increase fundraising capacity.
- Ringling College of Art and Design received $400,000 to establish a four-year scholarship program providing renewable scholarships to Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto county students with artistic promise and financial need.
- The Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County was awarded $300,000 for operating support and to provide new programming for emerging artists.
- Flourishing was awarded $300,000 to build its staff and administrative capacity to meet growing demand for its mentoring, academic support, leadership development and life-skills training for teenage girls facing barriers.
- The 2027 TIME Fellowship program was granted $300,000, which will give 25 Sarasota County Schools educators up to $12,000 each toward personal projects designed to spark innovation in their schools and classrooms.
- Sarasota Children’s Museum was awarded $250,000 to transition its leadership from all-volunteer to professional staffing, including hiring a full-time executive director to lead the growing organization in strengthening its program quality, expanding access to STEAM learning and building long-term stability.
- Barancik Foundation earmarked $30,000 to evaluate local recovery housing as part of its Recidivism Initiative, which seeks to strengthen long-term stability for those returning to the community from incarceration.
- The foundation also awarded nearly $2.3 million in operating support to more than 25 nonprofits long supported by founders Chuck and Margie Barancik, who died in 2019.
Since its founding in 2014, Barancik Foundation has awarded more than $202 million in grants.
Moving forward, grants will be allocated toward multiyear, general operating support, the organization said in a statement earlier this month. The winter 2026 grants listed above were awarded before that announcement.
