Community Foundation of Sarasota County Awards 2018 Giving Challenge Prizes

Categories: BELONGING AND CULTURE: Building Support & Capacity, Giving Challenge, Grants, Philanthropy,

SARASOTA, FL – The Community Foundation of Sarasota County recently awarded more than $310,000 in 2018 Giving Challenge grant prizes to organizations for a variety of special “Best Of” categories during the Challenge. An event was held on Friday, June 1st at Gold Coast Eagle Distributing to announce the recipients and award them their prize certificates.

For months leading up to the 2018 Giving Challenge, which happened on May 1st and 2nd, nonprofits worked on fundraising plans, communications campaigns, and planned events around the Giving Challenge in order to leverage the opportunity to generate unrestricted funding and develop relationships with new donors. Participating nonprofits were eligible to apply for prizes based on their strategy and success, such as best giving challenge video and event, best nonprofit-nonprofit partnership, best nonprofit-business partnership, best overall campaigns, and many more.

Volunteer committees made up of community leaders reviewed and judged the more than 430 applications submitted by the participating nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit organizations were broken down into three categories: Small (budgets under $100,000), Medium (budgets between $100,000 and $750,000) and Large (budgets greater than $750,000). The Community Foundation’s Board of Directors approved $200,000 to be awarded for this year’s prizes, with additional funding support Manatee Community Foundation, the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation, and the Charlotte Community Foundation.

The 2018 Giving Challenge raised more than $11.7 million in just 24 hours for 636 local nonprofits, thanks to support from The Patterson Foundation. In total, six combined Giving Challenges have helped to provide more than $40 million in unrestricted funding since 2012.

The Patterson Foundation also awarded $51,000 in prizes to organizations that cultivate the highest number of unique donors during the 2018 Giving Challenge. Prizes were awarded across three categories based on the size of each organization:


Survivors in Sync
# of Total Unique Donors - 1st Place (Small Organization) $7,000
MCJROTC Boosters Inc dba Venice High School Marine Corp Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp # of Total Unique Donors - 2nd Place (Small Organization) $5,000
Peace River Wildlife Center Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 3rd Place (Small Organization) $2,500
Lemon Bay Sunrise Rotary Community Trust # of Total Unique Donors - 4th Place (Small Organization) $1,500
Sarasota Ski A Rees Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 5th Place (Small Organization) $1,000
Honor Sanctuary, Inc. d/b/a Honor Animal Rescue # of Total Unique Donors - 1st Place (Medium Organization) $7,000
WSLR Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 2nd Place (Medium Organization) $5,000
Wildlife Center of Venice Inc. d/b/a Venice Wildlife # of Total Unique Donors - 3rd Place (Medium Organization) $2,500
Loving Hands Ministries Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 4th Place (Medium Organization) $1,500
Manasota Solve Inc D/B/A Solve Maternity Homes # of Total Unique Donors - 5th Place (Medium Organization) $1,000
Cat Depot # of Total Unique Donors - 1st Place (Large Organization) $7,000
American Cancer Society, Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 2nd Place (Large Organization) $5,000
Operation Second Chance Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 3rd Place (Large Organization) $2,500
The International Waldenstroms Macroglobulinemia Foundation Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 4th Place (Large Organization) $1,500
Agape Flights, Inc # of Total Unique Donors - 5th Place (Large Organization) $1,000

The winners of the "Best Of" prizes are as follows:

Best Nonprofit Partnership

Sponsored by: William G. and Marie Selby Foundation

$4,000 to three winning partnerships, $4,000 is split between partners

  • Boys and Girls Club of Manatee County and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
  • Healthy Start Coalition of Sarasota County and Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota County
  • Humane Society of Manatee County, Turning Points, Satchels Last Resort, and Lost Pet Services

Best Business Partnership

Sponsored by: William G. and Marie Selby Foundation

6 Grant Awards: $2,000 to two winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations)

Small

  • Literacy Council of Manatee County and 3 Keys Brewing and Eatery
  • The Mark Wandall Foundation and Station 400

Medium

  • ABA Academy and Spoiled Dirty Rotten
  • SailFuture and Herediaa Creative

Large

  • Easterseals of Southwest Florida and Century 21 Beggins Enterprises
  • Healthy Start Coalition of Sarasota County and Pineapple Yoga Studio

Best Board Member Engagement

Sponsored by: William G. and Marie Selby Foundation

3 Grant Awards: $2,000 to the winners of each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations)

Small

  • Animal Network Inc

Medium

  • UnidosNow

Large

  • Turning Points

Best Giving Challenge Community Event

Sponsored by: Community Foundation of Sarasota County

9 Grant Awards: $2,000 to three winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations)

Small

  • Community Broadband Radio
  • Punta Gorda Historic Mural Society
  • The Children’s Garden

Medium

  • ABA Academy
  • High Risk Hope
  • UnidosNow partnered with Florida Studio Theatre

Large

  • Cat Depot partnered with Suncoast Blood Bank
  • Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida partnered with Library Foundation for Sarasota County
  • Van Wezel Foundation partnered with Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota County

Best Use of Social Media

Sponsored by: Herald-Tribune Media Group

6 Grant Awards: $2,000 to two winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations)

Small

  • Suncoast Youth Foundation dba Empowerment Group
  • Warehouse of Venice

Medium

  • Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County
  • SailFuture

Large

  • Education Foundation of Sarasota County
  • Humane Society of Sarasota County

Best Giving Challenge Video

Sponsored by: Suncoast News Network

6 Grant Awards: $2,500 to two winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations)

Small

Medium

Large

Best Giving Challenge Newbie

Sponsored by: Charlotte Community Foundation and Harbor Style Magazine

6 Grant Awards: $2,000 to two winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations) for first-time Giving Challenge participants

Small

  • Beams of Grace Inc. DBA the Twig Warehouse
  • Moving Ethos

Medium

  • Barrier Island Parks Society
  • Drug Free Manatee

Large

  • Imagine – East Manatee County DBA Imagine School at Lakewood Ranch
  • United Way of Charlotte County

Best Giving Challenge Original

Sponsored by: Manatee Community Foundation

6 Grant Awards: $2,000 to two winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations) for organizations who also participated in the first Giving Challenge (Note: due to uneven application counts across size categories, one “small” award was reallocated to the “large” category).

Small

  • Fairy Tail Endings Inc

Medium

  • Project 180
  • UnidosNow

Large

  • Easterseals of Southwest Florida
  • Humane Society of Sarasota County
  • Mote Marine Laboratory

Best Giving Challenge Turnaround

Sponsored by: Community Foundation of Sarasota County

6 Grant Awards: $2,000 to two winners in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations) who demonstrated growth between the 2016 and 2018 Giving Challenges

Small

  • Literacy Council of Manatee County
  • Mayors Feed the Hungry

Medium

  • Child Evangelism Fellowship
  • Hope 4 Communities

Large

  • First Step of Sarasota
  • Humane Society of Manatee County

Knight Foundation Communities

Sponsored by: The Knight Donor Advised Fund at Manatee Community Foundation

5 Grant Awards: $5,000 to five winning organizations

  1. SailFuture
  2. Literacy Council of Sarasota
  3. Animal Network
  4. Sarasota-Bradenton Kappa Alpha Psi Project Guide Right, Inc.
  5. Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County

Best Overall Campaign

Sponsored by: Community Foundation of Sarasota County

9 Grant Awards: $6,000 to first place, $5,000 to second place, and $4,000 to third place in each category (Small, Medium, Large Organizations)

Small

  1. Sarasota-Bradenton Kappa Alpha Psi-Project Guide Right
  2. Survivors in Sync
  3. The Children’s Garden

Medium

  1. The Sarasota Cuban Ballet
  2. SailFuture
  3. A Life Story Foundation

Large

  1. Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida
  2. Cat Depot
  3. Womens Resource Center of Manatee