Note: This article originally appeared in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
One reason why the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation continues to make a transformative impact both in Sarasota County and beyond its borders is because the nonprofit has never been afraid to break new ground.
So it seems only fitting that the foundation’s innovative spirit has even found its way into its year-end annual report.
“The Year in Review” – which details the Barancik Foundation’s endeavors and partnerships during an unprecedented and unimaginable 2020 – is not exactly a collection of cold numbers and dry prose.
In fact, it’s anything but that.
It’s an imaginative collage that incorporates splashy artwork, animation, video snippets, interactive elements, a music playlist and – most powerful of all – the faces, words and voices of those whose lives were changed and elevated because of the Barancik Foundation over the past year.
Our community continues to be enriched by the Barancik Foundation’s dogged commitment to upholding the remarkable legacy of its founders, Charles and Margery Barancik.
– The Herald-Tribune Editorial Board
And make no mistake: the foundation’s footprint in 2020 was both deep and wide.
Despite a year marred by the demands and burdens of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the Barancik Foundation’s list of accomplishments during 2020 included:
- Issuing 136 grants.
- Awarding $14 million worth of financial support.
- Working with 168 nonprofit partners to make definable progress on goals ranging from promoting childhood development during the first 1,000 days of life to retaining teachers, from breaking the stigma that still surrounds mental health issues to protecting our local environment, from addressing hunger challenges aggravated by the wrath of COVID-19 to boosting a Barancik Scholars program that nurtures the educational ambitions of scores of area teens.
It has been noble work. It has been tireless work. It has been amazing work.
And it has been difference-making work that the Barancik Foundation – guided by CEO Teri Hansen, fueled by a solid staff and backed by a steadfast and civic-minded Board of Directors – is supremely poised to keep doing throughout this year (and amid the unique tests that 2021 will surely bring).
Our community continues to be enriched by the Barancik Foundation’s dogged commitment to upholding the remarkable legacy of its founders, Charles and Margery Barancik – and by the nonprofit’s equally passionate determination to keep adding new and exciting chapters to that legacy each day.
