About Us

What Is Gulf Coast?

The Foundation of Community

We are a public charity dedicated to serving the needs of our region. Everything we do here is about the community.

A Partner in Philanthropy

We are a collection of charitable funds created by individuals, families, organizations, and corporations to support their favorite causes, in our region and around the world.

A Partner in Philanthropy

Here Forever

As an endowed organization, Gulf Coast Community Foundation will be here in perpetuity—to address emerging needs and to ensure your gifts continue to do all that you envision.

Here Forever

Bold and Proactive

Opportunity is knocking, more and more loudly, across Florida and the nation. That’s why we can’t wait to innovate to keep our region competitive.

Bold and Proactive

Making Waves

We’re impatient for change to improve our region. We see altering the status quo as our obligation to our community and to our donors.

Making Waves

OUR STORY

The notion of a community caring for its own is written in our organizational DNA. Our foundation was created in 1995 with proceeds from the sale of The Venice Hospital, a community hospital that had been founded by local citizens more than four decades earlier. Today, we are the philanthropic home of more than 1,000 families who have created their own charitable funds here, and together with them we have invested nearly $500 million in grants in the areas of health and human services, civic and economic development, education, arts and culture, and the environment.