Public invited to nonprofit Fast Pitch event

Tickets are now on sale for Fast Pitch, an annual event highlighting Tampa Bay nonprofits in need of a helping hand.

Fast Pitch is hosted by Social Venture Partners (SVP), an organization with a mission to bolster the growth and sustainability of regional nonprofits by utilizing its members’ expertise and resources. Fast Pitch is SVP’s annual event where local nonprofit leaders compete for unrestricted grant funding by delivering their best elevator pitch in front of a live audience.

Before getting on the Fast Pitch stage, a selected group of nonprofit leaders participate in a rigorous 16-week business accelerator class led by area business leaders and SVP partners, receiving lessons on operations, marketing, finance, legal applications and properly communicating their mission.

“The Fast Pitch competition is the final step in the process where the nonprofit leaders learn so much about how to increase the capacity of their organizations,” said Keara McGraw, Program Manager at Social Venture Partners Tampa Bay. “The competition is not just about winning; it’s a celebration of community collaboration, shared learning and the joy of making a difference. It’s a night where the spirit of giving and community service shines brightly, making it a truly exciting and fun experience for all involved.”

The program creates positive change for local nonprofits through the help of longstanding partner Community Foundation Tampa Bay. CFTB has been the title sponsor of Fast Pitch since its inception in 2016. Dr. Jesse Coraggio, CFTB’s Senior Vice President of Community Impact, said organizers carefully selected seven participants from more than 50 applicants to participate in the accelerator course, which is developed and led by some of the region’s top educators and business professionals. 

“It’s competitive to even get selected to be one of the nonprofits that gets to be on the stage,” Corragio said. “It’s one of my favorite events of the year. I come from a place of being pretty knowledgeable in the nonprofit community, but I have learned something new every time I’ve attended and I’ve come out re-exhilarated about all the great work going on in the community.”

The seven Tampa Bay organizations participating in the year’s Fast Pitch – culminating in the Feb. 12 signature event at the Tampa Theatre – are EmpowHERment, Florida Dream Center, Girls Rock St. Pete, NAMI Pinellas County, New Tampa Players, Water Smart Tots Foundation and WellFed Community. Each nonprofit works with SVP mentors to develop a three-minute pitch detailing their organization’s goals and how they plan to fund operations, showcasing how they’ve learned to self-advocate throughout the 16-week course.

“This year, we’ve zeroed in on a specific size of nonprofit, not too big but not too small. We made sure they have resources so they are able to fully engage in the incubator program,” said Tricia Manning, Co-Chair of SVP and one of the Fast Pitch organizers and nonprofit mentors. “One of the benefits in [nonprofit leaders] attending these classes is that they can extend it to their staff and bring additional people in their organizations to these sessions where everyone can hear about topics like social enterprise or marketing and communications. They learn these skills and get to demonstrate that they’re developing and investing in their people.”

At the pitch event, a panel of judges picks first, second and third place, and the audience gets to choose a winner of their own. Last year’s first place winner, Brown’s Barbershop Book Club, won the competition’s $15,000 top prize. Florida Resurrection House placed second, winning $10,000, and Alpha House of Pinellas County finished third, winning $7,500. Frameworks took home the $5,000 Audience Choice Award.

Corragio emphasized that for the general public, attending the event is a way to learn about smaller nonprofits and the work they’re doing to improve the community.

“There are a lot of folks who are very passionate about how nonprofits are improving the community, but sometimes it’s difficult to know who’s doing what because at times, it’s isolated,” Corragio said. “You hear about the big nonprofits on a regular basis, but this event is really a good showcase of medium to small nonprofits that are doing boots-on-the-ground work to uplift our community.”

The nonprofit leaders on stage who don’t take home the top prize still get the opportunity to voice their organization’s mission in front of a roomful of people who may decide to support them.

“We’ve had many years in the past where somebody sitting in the audience might hear of a nonprofit, and even if they’re not a winner, they connect with the mission,” said Manning. “The ripples of impact that we’ve seen from the audience members who just show up to the event and make one phone call or one contribution has been pretty impactful.”

Fast Pitch will be hosted at the Tampa Theatre, 711 N Franklin St, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door.