Never losing sight of a brighter future to be forged, Chuck and Margie envisioned a community in which everyone had opportunities for health, growth, and success. Our community is changing for the better, yet enduring issues still obstruct progress on improving the quality of life in our region. Our initiatives employ data and collaboration to bolster systemic social safety nets.
Our Work
Our Initiatives
We believe bold philanthropy is uniquely positioned to raise the flag on issues that threaten the future of our community. From creating a coordinated network of mental health providers to increasing access to care for mothers and babies, we are catalyzing efforts around systemic issues that require complex and long-term solutions.
Transforming the community
from every angle.
Humanitarian Causes
Community News Collaborative (Suncoast Searchlight)
Overview
The decline of local news is a threat not only to good government, an informed citizenry, and civic engagement, but also to our nonprofit partners and the people they serve. Throughout Florida and the nation, the lack of coverage means that people’s involvement has diminished, misinformation has spread, and the voices of vulnerable communities often go unheard. The Community News Collaborative (CNC) was conceived as a bold philanthropic response to this crisis here in Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties.
The CNC unites multiple media outlets under a collaborative model to increase accountability news coverage in our region. Suncoast Searchlight, an independent nonprofit newsroom, produces original journalism that it disseminates electronically and that also can be published by other media outlets in the collaborative. Searchlight’s editors and reporters also partner with print, digital, TV, and radio outlets to produce and co-publish stories on critical issues affecting our community.
Launched
2022
Why
Shrinking resources have limited the news coverage of many of the region’s news organizations, preventing them from engaging with many ongoing stories that they were able to follow in better economic days.
Partners
Bradenton Herald, The Daily Sun/Venice Gondolier, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Florida Trident, WWSB/ABC 7, Sarasota Magazine, WUSF News, WSLR/Fogartyville, SolMart Media, West Coast Woman
Humanitarian Causes
First 1,000 Days Suncoast
Overview
The earlier the investment, the greater the return. This is Barancik Foundation’s philosophy on the life-changing importance of investing in prenatal care and early childhood development. This philosophy is what drove us, alongside 70-plus partners, to explore how our community can better provide families with the foundational support they need during babies’ critical early years. In 2018, the First 1,000 Days initiative was born.
Strengthened by leadership from Sarasota Memorial Hospital, First 1,000 Days Suncoast has delivered on its promise to create a seamless network of free and affordable services so every child can have a strong start in life. Families can also enter themselves into a referral system, powered by the Unite Us referral platform, if they need parenting assistance or help getting basic needs.
Launched
2018
Why
The majority of a child’s brain develops within the first 1,000 days of life. Supporting families during this critical early childhood development period has lifelong impacts on health and wellbeing.
Partners
Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and now more than 90 community partners.
Student Success
Barancik Early Learning Initiative
Overview
In 2020, everyone became deeply aware of childcare’s relationship to the labor market—you can’t reopen the economy without early learning centers. A fragile system before the pandemic, the industry was then on life support.
Preschools are the converging point of many of our society’s biggest challenges and greatest opportunities. They hold promise to stimulate intergenerational cycles of opportunity. That’s why Barancik Foundation convened key partners to work together to create more opportunities for high-quality childcare.
Based on research including extensive surveys of early learning educators, we have focused on four strategic areas: workforce recruitment, retention, and training; meeting increased behavioral health needs in preschool classrooms; strengthening administration and leadership in our local early education industry; and policy and planning. Two backbone partner agencies—YMCA of Southwest Florida and The Florida Center for Early Childhood—have been instrumental in identifying areas that can be improved in our system.
Launched
2022
Why
We believe that by transforming the system of early learning in our community, we can create a more prosperous economy and a more educated workforce.
Partners
Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Local preschool directors and teachers, Sarasota County Schools, United Way of the Suncoast, YMCA of Southwest Florida, and our research partners: Kempton Research and Planning and the University of Florida.
Student Success
Time to Inspire Margie’s Educators – TIME Fellowship
Overview
Chuck and Margie Barancik loved our community’s children and teachers. As a former teacher, Margie knew what research clearly states: a motivated and highly effective classroom teacher is the most important factor for a child’s academic success.
To honor Margie’s chosen profession, the TIME Fellowship (Time to Inspire Margie’s Educators) will support as many as 25 fellowships to Sarasota County School District educators, each awarded up to $12,000, to help refresh and renew their commitment to teaching.
Project proposals from both individual applicants and collaborative groups of two or more may be submitted. Each project idea should be intellectually revitalizing and personally renewing. The idea proposed should also seek to creatively expand an educator’s experiences through projects that are of a unique quality and provide opportunities for personal fulfillment that might otherwise not be available.
Launched
2022
Why
A motivated and highly effective classroom teacher is the most important factor for a child’s academic success. This effort will help rejuvenate educators’ passion for education and teaching.
Partners
Sarasota County School District
Student Success
Teacher Recruitment | Retention | Recognition
Overview
Everyone remembers their favorite teacher. Outside of family, teachers have the greatest influence on a child’s academic performance and future success. That’s why we want to keep good teachers and attract new ones to our public school district. Knowing their vital role and understanding that teaching is the profession that creates all others, Barancik Foundation launched this initiative in partnership with Sarasota County Schools to explore ways to ensure the need was met.
The Foundation has created and invested in several complementary programs and activities at the school district to support and enhance teacher recruitment, retention, and recognition. For example, Emerging Educators identifies local adults who would make good classroom teachers and provides financial and other support to help them earn their teaching certification.
Scholarship support at regional colleges helps local young adults who aspire to become teachers. Paid final teaching internships and stipends for classroom mentors directly support prospective teachers with ties to our community. Meanwhile, a dedicated Talent Acquisition Manager at the district helps coordinate and leverage these and other recruitment activities.
The Foundation also created two annual programs to recognize and invest directly in teachers: the TIME Fellowship and the Ripple Effect Teacher Award.
Launched
2017
Why
Many factors contribute to a student’s academic performance, including individual characteristics and family and neighborhood experiences. But research suggests that, among school-related factors, teachers matter most.
Partners
Sarasota County School District and State College of Florida
Financial Empowerment
Affordable Housing
Overview
Finding an affordable place to live remains one of the core challenges in Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. The housing crisis runs across demographics and impacts every business and every person in our region in terms of essential workers—nurses, police officers, fire personnel, and many others. It also negatively affects everything from community health and educational performance to overall quality of life.
In partnership with fellow foundations and leaders from the local business community, Barancik Foundation is pulling all the levers to create more affordable housing options and to strengthen services for those at risk of homelessness.
This includes working to create a dedicated, recurring public funding source; investing directly in affordable housing units; and supporting nonprofits that work in prevention, intervention, and crisis response. A 2025 report we co-commissioned from the Florida Housing Coalition presents a five-part strategic plan for coordinated action across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Launched
2022
Why
Sarasota County has not kept pace with the demand for workforce housing. Now the county and region find themselves with a crisis in both rental housing and single-family availability.
Partners
Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Humanitarian Causes
Recidivism
Overview
Every day, neighbors from our community languish in jail or prison and cannot provide for themselves or their families. They face challenges that include poverty, a lack of education and work alternatives, and addiction. When they leave incarceration and return to the community, these factors often lead to recidivism, the tendency of a convicted person to re-offend.
Barancik Foundation supports a range of programs that help these men and women find a way to avoid crime when they leave custody. In partnership with the sheriff’s offices in Sarasota, DeSoto, and Manatee counties, the Foundation supports reentry navigators: employees who help individuals leaving custody with whatever they need—transportation, identification, counseling, employment, housing, and more.
Launched
2022
Why
Recidivism affects not only the individuals who return time and again to custody, but also their families, our community through the offenses they commit, and everyone who owns property through the cost of incarceration.
Partners
Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto County Sheriff’s Offices, Florida Department of Corrections, 12th Judicial Circuit, and Project 180.
“Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation—a major catalyst for improving
the lives of the less fortunate in the community.”
– Sarasota Herald-Tribune