Westfield centers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area have partnered with the Pinellas Education Foundation and the Hillsborough Education Foundation on a school supply drive. Through Aug. 15, Westfield Countryside in Clearwater along with Westfield Brandon and Westfield Citrus Park are collecting school supplies at drop-off locations inside the centers. There also will be a day-long, contactless donation drive on Friday, July 31 at Westfield Countryside and on Saturday, Aug. 8 at the Brandon and Citrus Park malls. The annual event, called "Stuff the Bus" has been a back-to-school mainstay but is especially important this year given the financial hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Westfield said in a news release. There's also an option to donate online at StuffTheBusPinellas.org where you can also find a list of needed school supplies.
1 Millions Cups St. Pete returns tomorrow, virtually! Tune in to hear from two local entrepreneurs, making their pitch to grow their business with the feedback and connections of the St. Pete community. This week's presenters will be: Bridges and Kin Technologies, Inc - Register here
UnitedHealthcare has awarded Empowering Health grants to two Tampa-St. Petersburg area organizations. Seniors in Service in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas Counties received a $150,000 grant to expand a program addressing loneliness and social isolation among homebound seniors with low incomes by engaging them with telephone check-ins and assurance. Girls on the Run Greater Tampa Bay was awarded $30,000 to expand access to its physical activity-based, positive youth development program for 10 new teams of girls in underserved Tampa Bay communities for the 2020-2021 school year. United's Empowering Health grants are intended to expand access to care and address the social determinants of health for uninsured individuals and underserved communities.
The City of St. Petersburg has approved the installation of an inclusive Pride mural in the Grand Central District at the intersection of 25th St. and Central Ave, which is considered to be the birthplace of St. Pete Pride. The mural will be made up of 11 colored stripes and its installation will be overseen by local LGBTQ artist Andrea Pawlisz. St. Pete Pride is seeking to raise $7,000 to cover the full cost of the installation and maintenance, and has already brought in more than $4,700 in donations. To donate, click here.
The Penny Hoarder, a personal finance website in St. Petersburg, announced a content collaboration with Military.com, a website for the U.S. military and veteran community. The Penny Hoarder will syndicate its personal finance content and provide original articles to the Military.com audience, a news release said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It's the second partnership announced by The Penny Hoarder recently. Last month, The Penny Hoarder and Moonlighting, a platform that helps independent workers find jobs and manage their businesses, said they would partner on content.
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.
