Speer Dream Foundation pivots to hurricane relief funding

The Speer Dream Foundation is stepping up to help local residents reeling from the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, unveiling a grant initiative to bolster nine area nonprofit organizations.

These grants, given outside of the Speer Dream Foundation’s typical grant cycle, aim to facilitate direct relief efforts for individuals and families grappling with the devastating aftermath of the storms. So far, the foundation has disbursed $472,500 in direct hurricane relief grants, with another round of funding expected soon, bringing the total to $600,000 before the end of 2024.

The nine grant recipients are:

• Julie Weintraub’s Hands Across the Bay: Offering immediate assistance to families impacted by the hurricanes, including emergency financial support and essential resources.
• The Kind Mouse: Providing nutritional support to families in need, focusing on the immediate distribution of food and supplies to hurricane survivors.
• Whatever It Takes Foundation: Mobilizing efforts to meet critical needs for those affected, from shelter and housing assistance to disaster recovery resources.
• Reach St. Pete: Delivering rapid-response aid to the homeless and low-income families affected by the storms, providing essentials like food, hygiene products and temporary shelter.
• Heroes of St. Pete Police & Fire Rescue: Supporting first responders and their families as they manage recovery efforts while attending to their own hurricane-related needs.
• YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg: Facilitating aid to YMCA staff and families impacted by the hurricanes.
• Coast Guard Foundation: Offering immediate assistance to Coast Guard members and their families as they lead relief and rescue operations during post-hurricane recovery.
• St. Pete Fools Charities: Raising funds and coordinating local resources for direct aid to individuals facing hardship in the aftermath of the hurricanes.
• Countryside Cares: Providing emergency relief packages, including food, water and hygiene kits to families in the most affected areas.

In the days following the hurricanes, Julie Weintraub, Founder and CEO of Hands Across the Bay, said the absolute devastation so many in the community were facing motivated her and her nonprofit team to rally together.

“We were spending $2,000 a day on labor, trying to get groups of people to get dump trucks together to help load some of people’s items out of their house and remove their personal belongings,” Weintraub recounted. “We couldn’t find FEMA anywhere. We couldn’t find any of the people that were supposed to respond to these disasters; they were just absent for days after, and that was really concerning to us, so we jumped into action. And we didn’t have any money coming in for this until we connected with the Speer Dream Foundation.”

Julie Weintraub’s Hands Across the Bay mobilized into action following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, using funding from the Speer Dream Foundation to help coastal residents clean out their homes and remediate damage caused by wind, flooding and mold. Photo provided.

Reach St. Pete has also been on the front lines, delivering rapid-response aid to vulnerable populations.

“A lot of people are experiencing some level of hardship; whether they lost power for a week or had four feet of water in their house, it’s going to take a long time to rebuild,” said Keegan Hartt, Director of Community Outreach for Reach St. Pete. 

Hartt noted that since the hurricanes, they have served over 1,000 families, highlighting the extensive need in the community. One of many ways Reach St. Pete is using the grant funding from the Speer Dream Foundation to help the community is through a partnership with DoorDash, using the food delivery company’s drivers, logistics teams and maps to provide food and other goods to people who lack transportation or have mobility challenges.

“We also have a mobile grocery store that we deploy where folks can come through and pick out what they need,” Hartt added. “I think a lot of us don’t realize how much need is actually in the community, and a lot of folks are afraid to ask for help. If we can provide them with the opportunity and the easy access to help and resources, I think it makes them more willing to receive them.”

Tim Whipple, Executive Director of the Speer Dream Foundation, said they realized very quickly after Hurricane Helene that their planned giving for the year, which included a $2.3 million grant disbursement initiative, needed to change.

“We went, ‘Okay, we have to be more intentional and more specific about what we’re doing.’,” Whipple said. “So we started just kind of whiteboarding that and saying, ‘How do we pivot? How do we redirect some funds?’ And then Milton came and we said, ‘Okay, now we have to do that now.’”

 While the Speer Dream Foundation cannot give grants directly to individuals, it can and does disburse funds to other nonprofits. Whipple said their team immediately began working hard to identify which organizations were directly helping residents in the community so they could ensure their rapid response funding would go directly to those affected by the storms in the Tampa Bay area.

“We love helping people in North Carolina and Georgia and Tennessee, and we do that, but we specifically wanted to help people here,” Whipple said. “It was really important to us to identify nonprofits that are on the ground, already on the front lines, and to fund them so that they can fund people in the area. We love what the national organizations do, but we wanted the money to go directly to the people that we’re going to see in Publix tomorrow.”

Whipple added that the grants have very few guidelines, with the goal of helping nonprofits use the funding as they see fit and as the needs of those they serve continue to evolve. While many residents and aid organizations are still in “survival mode,” the focus is starting to shift to the future and what needs to be done to ensure an even faster response and recovery when the next crisis comes our way.

“It’s not a matter of if another hurricane or another storm is coming, it’s a matter of when,” Hartt said. “If we can have some plan in place that not only educates our community but allows us to be ready to respond immediately after a natural disaster, I think that’s super crucial to St. Pete.”

“We’re looking now at the future of how to prepare,” Whipple added. “How do we be more proactive, as opposed to reactive? Because this is going to happen again. It’s just the nature of where we live. We’re going to work with some of these organizations to create some plans for being able to respond more intentionally, quicker and be able to mobilize that support by doing some pretty creative things down the road to help those not only in our community, but in communities that surround us.”

As St. Pete, and the entire Tampa Bay area, continues to pick up the pieces, the Speer Dream Foundation’s support underscores the vital role of philanthropic organizations in bolstering community-led relief efforts, which have been a lifeline for many when they had little else to rely on.

“Basic humanitarian needs were not met in our community for an extended period of time,” Weintraub said, recalling the desperate situation she experienced firsthand in Pinellas County’s coastal communities. “I hope this is a learning lesson for everybody.”

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