To help our community recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton through Season of Sharing and the Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund, click here

To be eligible for a grant from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, an organization must fulfill the below requirements. Please review these requirements carefully prior to applying for a grant opportunity from the Community Foundation.

If you are looking for available grant opportunities, please visit our nonprofit section for current listings and information on how to apply.

Eligibility Requirements

An IRS Letter of Determination that shows the organization is a 501(c)3 public charity.

Community foundations use funds that were set aside for charitable purposes to make grants to charitable institutions. As such, one of the legal requirements for grantees is that they are certified by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization. Learn more about becoming a 501(c)3 organization.

At least one current program with local impact in one of the following counties: Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, or DeSoto.

As a community foundation, we are dedicated to expending our available funding within our local area.  

According to the Council on Foundations, “community foundations are grantmaking public charities that are dedicated to improving the lives of people in a defined local geographic area. They bring together the financial resources of individuals, families, and businesses to support effective nonprofits in their communities.”  

Learn more about our mission and values.

Learn more about community foundations.

An approved/current profile in The Giving Partner, a powerful, searchable online database with over 700 profiles of charitable organizations serving Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties. 

The Giving Partner, presented by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, allows local nonprofits to tell their story at all levels, and allows all of us to explore how each nonprofit is making a difference. 

This database contains the profiles of 501(c)(3) charitable organizations serving Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties. Each organization’s profile reflects holistic information including core mission, needs, programmatic impact/outcomes, leadership, planning, and financial health. To be eligible for grants and other opportunities, nonprofits are required to maintain a profile with an Approved/CURRENT status, which signifies that the organization provided the required content and key information was reviewed by our team. 

Learn more about The Giving Partner or get started in creating a profile.

Resources for Grantees

Grant Reporting

Press Kit for Grantees

Need Assistance?

Community Impact Team:

impact@cfsarasota.org