WILMA NORTON PHOTO
The COVID-19 pandemic is crippling nonprofit organizations all over Tampa Bay, including those here in South Shore, like the Community Cupboard food pantry, Critter Adoption and Rescue Effort no kill animal shelter and Firehouse Cultural Center. While you can donate directly to your favorite charity, the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay is offering several ways to help keep their missions going.

Foundation provides ways for community to keep favorite charities functioning

By LOIS KINDLE

The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay is giving folks several means of helping area nonprofits continue to serve the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our mission every day is to build a stronger, more resilient community, and never is that more important than in a time of crisis,” said Marlene Spalten, its president and CEO, in a recent press release. “Together – with our generous donors, our civic leaders, our corporate citizens, our partners and the residents of Tampa Bay – we can weather adversity and care for each other.”

MARLENE SPALTEN

Toward that end, the foundation has taken the following actions in recent weeks:

1) It launched and seeded the Tampa Bay Rapid Response Fund from its unrestricted funds to steward donations for people and organizations wanting to help but not having a specific charity in mind. The foundation will use the seed money, plus donations from other foundations, corporations and individuals to target grant funding to community-based nonprofits currently facing growing demand and financial hardship.

2) It gave nonprofits a place online to state their needs, so the information could be categorized and shared with foundation donors, the public and area philanthropists. This Nonprofit Needs Request Form generated $11 million in requests during the first week it was started.

3) The foundation also released a Nonprofits Needs List so potential donors could dedicate their giving to the causes and organizations that mean the most to them.

4) And it introduced a Fundholder Match Program to incentivize gift giving from already established foundation funds to nonprofits on the list. In this donor-advised program, the foundation will match maximum gifts of $15,000 with an additional $5,000 and minimum gifts of $750 with an additional $250. Donors with established funds can support more than one nonprofit on the list and get the match, but there can be no duplication in who receives funds.

WILMA NORTON

Nonprofit organizations helping people most in need have been significantly impacted; these include food pantries, like the Community Cupboard in Ruskin; food distribution groups, like Feeding Tampa Bay; elderly services; homeless shelters; childcare providers; and community health centers. But the COVID-19 crisis is hurting all nonprofits, including those impacting education, the arts, animal services and more.

Thus far, requests from more than 250 nonprofit organizations have ranged from $1,000 to $800,000.

“We want the community to be helped, so we’re also encouraging people to give directly to the organizations they care about,” said Wilma Norton, foundation vice president of marketing and communications. “We want people to donate in whatever way is best for them.”

If you’d like to help and need more information, visit www.cftampabay.org and click on the Together We Are Doing Good banner to find the Tampa Bay Rapid Response Fund and List of Nonprofit Needs links.

To make a donation for as little as $25 to The Rapid Response Fund, visit https://cftampabay.org/givenow/rapidresponse/.

And if your nonprofit organization needs help, visit https://cftampabay.org/nonprofitneeds/ for more information. Technical questions about the process may be directed to Jessica Scites at jscites@cftampabay.org.