Community Foundation of Tampa Bay launches new tool to support local nonprofits

Critical Needs List connects local nonprofits with urgent and unexpected needs to philanthropists

Tampa, Fla. (July 27, 2021) – The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay has launched a new tool to connect philanthropists with the unexpected and urgent needs of local nonprofits. Called the Critical Needs List, the new philanthropy tool quickly mobilizes funding sources to help local nonprofits that are facing imminent threats to their ability to serve the Tampa Bay community.

Nonprofits share sudden and urgent needs with the Community Foundation for posting on the Critical Needs List. The Community Foundation is defining ‘critical needs’ as unbudgeted, unforeseen, and time-sensitive needs that significantly interfere with the nonprofit’s ability to provide critical services or presents an imminent threat to the nonprofit’s continued operations.

The Community Foundation posts the nonprofit’s request for urgent support on the Critical Needs List on its website: www.cftampabay.org/criticalneedslist/. Community philanthropists are able to view specific information regarding local nonprofits’ critical needs.

The Community Foundation also works to match philanthropists with the nonprofit’s funding request, and offers matching incentives when its fundholders contribute to a need on the list.

“We provided more than $30 million in grants to nonprofits last year, but some requests can’t wait for a funding cycle,” said Marlene Spalten, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay. “We saw how the COVID-19 pandemic affected many local nonprofits, and it sparked the idea to create an avenue for nonprofits to receive urgent support.”

The Critical Needs List was created after the Community Foundation saw a surge in critical, urgent needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its now-closed Nonprofit Needs List centralized nonprofits’ greatest COVID-related needs and the specific dollar amounts needed to fund each project.

Through the Nonprofit Needs List, the Community Foundation provided $4.5 million in philanthropic support to nonprofits helping over 765,000 local residents through its own funding resources and the generosity of local philanthropists, corporations and foundations from March 2020 to April 2021. Many more nonprofits received contributions directly from philanthropists who viewed the list.

Nonprofits are also encouraged to submit applications for the Community Foundation’s competitive grants cycle when it opens on October 13, 2021. It will award approximately $1 million in competitive grants to local nonprofits this year.

About the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay

Founded in 1990, the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay connects donors, nonprofits, community and business leaders, professional advisors, volunteers and residents to make the maximum positive impact in the Tampa Bay region. For 30 years, the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay has been dedicated to making giving easy and meaningful for donors as a way to strengthen nonprofit organizations and build a better, more vibrant community. Since its inception, its donors have enabled the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay to award over $280 million in grants to nonprofit organizations across the country.