While The Blue Urban Project was originally funded in part through federal grants tied to environmental initiatives, co-founder Kirsten Hutchings said shifting funding priorities from the federal administration has pushed the group to explore other funding sources.<\/p>\n
Nonprofits across the country have faced similar challenges, she noted, prompting what many are calling \u201cThe Great Pivot,\u201d a move toward diversified, self-sustaining revenue streams.<\/p>\n
\u201cOriginally, this shop was not part of our vision,\u201d Hutchings, an Army veteran, who co-founded the group with Raymond Salden in August 2024, told St. Pete Rising. \u201cThis shop will serve multiple purposes. It will allow us to be financially stable enough to continue our mission of helping the environment and people,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
Not only will a portion of each sale support a good cause, but shoppers will also be able to choose exactly where their money goes, including marine ecosystem restoration, local waterway sustainability projects, and programs supporting veterans and vulnerable populations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fully transparent and want to give customers that choice,\u201d Hutchings said. \u201cWe\u2019re also asking donors to fill out a form so we can share the story and history behind the items.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Blue Urban Project partners with other local nonprofits, such as MAR (Mindful Action for Regeneration)<\/a>, which focuses on native tree plantings and coastal cleanups, and The Rota Foundation<\/a>, which assists charities that support social justice and human rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy, homelessness, and other missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While The Blue Urban Project was originally funded in part through federal grants tied to environmental initiatives, co-founder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-213543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}