You can now check in on the Catalyst's latest content series via a new panel on the StPeteCatalyst.com home page. The current collection includes our TBBCA partner video series, Vintage St Pete, Inside the Boardroom and The Work Around. A full series section is in development and will be launching in the coming months.
The University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine has received the largest single gift to scholarships in the history of the medical college. The $4 million gift from Dr. Jack F. Ross will benefit the medical scholarship that bears his name, a news release from the college said. Ross, a retired Tampa psychiatrist, died at the age of 98 last summer. He had previously provided $150,000 to establish the endowed Jack F. Ross Medical Scholarship, which assists high-achieving medical students. To date, 13 students have benefited from the scholarship, USF said.
Tampa Bay Software CEO Council donated $10,000 to Think Big for Kids, a nonprofit that provides career exploration, mentorship and skills development for underprivileged youth. Think Big for Kids' efforts to end the cycle of poverty and get young people excited about careers was cited as the reason for the donation in a news release. The CEO Council is part of Tampa Bay Tech, a nonprofit technology council, and its member companies include A-LIGN, Accusoft, AgileThought, Bond-Pro, FairWarning, Geographic Solutions, Haneke Design, MercuryWorks, Sourcetoad, Spirion and SunView Software. Think Big for Kids was founded in 2016 by Tony DiBenedetto, tech executive and entrepreneur. Read more about the donation in the St. Pete Catalyst's Impact section.
Bank of America, the largest retail bank operating in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, gave grants totaling $875,000 to 18 local nonprofits to address issues related to COVID-19. Those local groups are: Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast; Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay; CDC of Tampa; Crisis Center of Tampa Bay; Daystar Life Center; ECHO of Brandon; Feeding Tampa Bay; Homeless Empowerment Project; Meals on Wheels of Tampa; Metropolitan Ministries; Pinellas County Urban League; Pinellas Education Foundation; St. Petersburg Free Clinic; Starting Right, Now; Tampa Bay Job Links; United Way Suncoast; University Area CDC; and YMCA of St. Petersburg. Separately, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has made a $1 billion, four-year commitment of additional support to help local communities nationwide address economic and racial inequality accelerated by a global pandemic. Those programs will be focused on assisting people and communities of color that have experienced a greater impact from the health crisis, a news release said. Local recipients of the $1 billion commitment have not yet been determined.
The St Pete Catalyst RSS feed, which allows websites to display, and automatically update, Catalyst content, now supports images. Feeds are divided into specific genres as well as content types. Visit https://stpetecatalyst.com/rss-feeds/ to access the Catalyst RSS feeds. Email Spark@stpetecatalyst.com for support in adding a feed to your website.
The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay has received a $500,000 commitment from The Humana Foundation to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Tampa Bay region. The gift bolsters the Community Foundation’s ability to mobilize its funding resources and collaborate with local nonprofits for the community’s benefit, a news release said. The Humana Foundation’s gift will be distributed to local nonprofits through the Community Foundation’s Tampa Bay Rapid Response Fund, which provides grants to local nonprofits to address immediate and mid- to long-term needs. The new commitment adds to Humana’s earlier $100,000 donation to the Community Foundation in the earliest days of the pandemic. The Rapid Response Fund is one avenue that the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay is using to connect resources to local nonprofits who are serving the Tampa Bay community. The Community Foundation also created the Nonprofit Needs List, a centralized list of local nonprofits’ greatest needs during the pandemic
Christina Noordstart & Lauren Brigman brought 100 Women Who Care to St Petersburg late last year. The concept, with national and international chapters, is to collect $100 from up to 100 women who attend quarterly events to hear 3 nonprofits pitch. The group votes on a winner to receive the full amount. The latest event, moved to Facebook by the pandemic, featured CASA, The St Pete Free Clinic and The Kind Mouse. CASA took home the top prize of $9630. The two founders shared their story on a recent Impact Catalyst. Click here to watch the episode.
Representatives from predictive market intelligence firm Impacts Research and Development held an online webinar Wednesday in partnership with the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance. More than 190 people registered for the free dissemination of data on the subject of COVID-19’s impact on cultural entities, subtitled “What Will Make Visitors Feel Comfortable Visiting Again?” Chief Market Engagement Manager Colleen Dilenschneider and Chief Strategy Officer Jim Hekkers have been surveying Americans for 11 weeks, and declared “Intentions to visit cultural organizations within three months have recovered when compared to this same time last year, and intentions to visit within one month are close to observed historic levels.” Although safe re-opening dates are likely a long way off, data also suggests members and subscribers will be particularly important target audiences upon reopening. Read the research here.
Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay has received grants totaling $17,000 to fund JA work readiness and financial literacy programming. The grants, from State Farm Insurance, are part of a larger statewide initiative totaling $60,000 that will support Junior Achievement programs in 11 communities throughout Florida, enabling over 5,000 young people to participate in JA’s nationally-recognized economic education programs, a news release said. Locally, the $6,000 allocation of State Farm funds to Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay/Hillsborough County partially funds 847 low-to-moderate income students to attend JA BizTown or JA Finance Park. Both programs help students identify and practice the skills they need to find and keep a job and to manage personal finance. JA of Tampa Bay/Sarasota received $5,000 in State Farm funds and JA of Tampa Bay/Polk/Highlands received $6,000 to support Junior Achievement financial literacy classes for over 400 low and moderate income students. State Farm and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto and home insurance in the United States.
Hancock Whitney, one of the larger banks operating in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, pledged an $80,000 investment to local food pantries in Tampa Bay as part of the bank’s Covid-19 community relief efforts. Metropolitan Ministries and St. Petersburg Free Clinic each will get $40,000, a news release said. For Metro Ministries, the funding will provide an estimated 3,000 meals per day for two weeks; at $1 per meal, the donation will impact nearly 42,000 individuals, a news release said. The funding for St. Pete Free Clinic will help the organization meet the increasing demands by purchasing food in bulk. It also will ensure that staff serving on the frontlines of food programs, interacting with hundreds of people per day, stay safe, healthy and compensated with "appreciation pay," the news release said.
Grow Financial Federal Credit Union has launched an initiative designed to support small businesses and local restaurants in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. Under the new Grow On Us program, the credit union will pick up the tab for area residents at about 30 small businesses, starting next week and continuing through the end of August. Grow Financial expects to spend about $200,000 on the program, which is designed to counter the negative impact of Covid-19 on the economy. Participating businesses include The Blind Tiger, Bella Prana Yoga, Urban Brew & BBQ, Seventh Avenue Apothecary, Mekenita Cantina, Tidal Brewing, and Deviled Pig, among others. Membership with Grow Financial is not required to take advantage of an open tab, the credit union said. More information is here.
Think Big for Kids, a nonprofit founded by Tampa tech executive and entrepreneur Tony DiBenedetto, has partnered with Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast on a workforce development program. The partnership is designed to expand career development planning and will include career showcases, skill-building workshops, mentoring program, internships, scholarships and more. The programs will be offered at all Boys & Girls Clubs of the Suncoast locations serving teens in Pinellas County. Think Big for Kids, launched four years ago, initially partnered with Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay, which serves Hillsborough County
