Prominent Sarasota nonprofit leader to retire after 10 years

The leader of a Sarasota nonprofit announced her plans to retire after a decade of service. Teri Hansen, president and CEO of Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, will remain in her role as the organization searches for her successor and will assist in the leadership transition, according to a statement. 

Hansen, who has led the Barancik Foundation since 2015, was initially hired as its first employee. Previously, Hansen was the president and CEO of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation for more than 13 years.

Courtesy image

“I’m really a ‘startup’ person,” Hansen says in a statement. “It was the honor of my professional career to help Margie and Chuck Barancik explore the possibilities of their philanthropy and then build the structure to care for the community and organizations they loved in perpetuity.”

Under Hansen's leadership, the organization has grown to more than $700 million in assets, and it awards over $30 million in grants each year, according to a statement.

“Teri has been an incomparable leader during Barancik Foundation’s first decade, and she is an irreplaceable friend of the Barancik family,” Board Chair Rebecca Harris Barancik says in the statement. “She has truly honored Chuck and Margie’s belief in the power of philanthropy to make a meaningful difference in the lives of all people, and she has enabled us to exceed their vision of what their foundation could accomplish.”

Among the highlights achieved during Hansen’s tenure were developing several regional programs. Those include: 

• First 1,000 Days Suncoast, which provides free and affordable services for children’s first 1,000 days of life; the Barancik Early Learning Institute
• A teacher recruitment, recognition and retention initiative with Sarasota County Schools. 
• Funding the technological transformation of middle schools in Sarasota County in partnership with the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and others. 
• Expanding the international Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research, awarded annually to promote treatment and a cure for multiple sclerosis.

One of the most difficult aspects of Hansen’s presidency, the release states, came in 2019 when the organization lost its founders to a car crash. 

“Chuck and Margie were really beginning to understand the full potential of their giving,” Hansen says. “They so enjoyed seeing firsthand the difference it could make. One of the best things Chuck ever said to me was that their foundation’s impact had already exceeded his wildest dreams.”

In sum, Barancik Foundation has awarded more than $170 million in grants and initiatives since its founding in 2014. 

“We are at a pivotal point in Barancik Foundation’s growth,” Harris Barancik says in the statement. “The groundwork that Teri has established and relationships she has built will be like a springboard for a new phase of impact.”

This article originally appeared on sister site BusinessObserverFL.com.