PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla \u2014\u00a0A Pinellas County charity that supports local nonprofits has received a record number of requests for one of its grants.<\/p>\n
The Pinellas Community Foundation awarded operating grants to 65 different organizations in need after getting hundreds of applications.<\/p>\n
The Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center received the grant. The nonprofit is celebrating 30 years of offering wraparound services in Safety Harbor.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Pinellas Community Foundation received a record number of applications for its operating grants
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PCF received 240 applications, a 30% increase from the last cycle
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The Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center received the grant, and leaders said the funding will go toward staffing and expanding hours
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65 organizations were awarded the operating grant\u00a0<\/p>\n
“A good group of people and doing some good stuff,\u201d said volunteer Steve Olson.<\/p>\n
Volunteers and staff provide people with food and clothes and offer after-school programs and family support. In the last six months, the executive director of the nonprofit said it has seen a 20% increase in the number of people visiting its food pantry.<\/p>\n
“That’s the difference between 200 families a week and 225-230 families a week. So our hours on food pantry have been half-an-hour to an hour longer every night,\u201d said David Hale, the center’s executive director.<\/p>\n
To ensure it could continue serving everyone, the nonprofit applied for an operating grant from the Pinellas Community Foundation. PCF has been offering those grants since 1970, but in 2025 it received a record 240 applications. It’s a 30% increase from the previous cycle.<\/p>\n
The Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center was one of 65 organizations awarded the money.<\/p>\n
“We’ve received support from Pinellas Community Foundation in the past, but I have to say at this time, the funding was critical,\u201d Hale said.<\/p>\n
Pinellas Community Foundation CEO Duggan Cooley said the spike in requests is because of the uncertainty in federal, state and local funding combined with the fact that organizations are serving more people.<\/p>\n
“So they’re kind of seeing it on both sides, the revenue side, trying to make sure that they have enough money to operate. But then also on the side of trying to serve as many people and a growing number of people needing help in the community,\u201d Cooley said.<\/p>\n
The grants provide money for 2026 and 2027. Cooley said operating grants are rare, but they can be a lifeline for organizations.<\/p>\n
“So having flexible operating support from organizations like Pinellas Community Foundation help stabilize nonprofits, helps provide them the tools needed to meet a changing environment and to serve more people,\u201d Cooley said.<\/p>\n
Leaders at the Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center said they’ll use the funding for staffing and expanding its hours.<\/p>\n
“When people walk through the door, they tell us what challenges they’re facing. That type of funding means we can meet them right where they’re at and say, \u2018yes, we do that here.’ Not, ‘no, I don’t have funding for that. I got to refer you somewhere else,'” Hale said.<\/p>\n
These grants ensure help can be found at the family center, allowing the center’s volunteers to continue to serve their neighbors.<\/p>\n
“It’s time to give back,” Olson said. “I retired recently, and so now I have more time to, to do this kind of thing.”<\/p>\n
The Pinellas Community Foundation works with donors throughout the year to raise flexible funding to help a variety of organizations in the county.<\/p>\n
The application window for operating grants will open in middle to late 2027. That money would be awarded for 2028 and 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla \u2014\u00a0A Pinellas County charity that supports local nonprofits has received a record number of requests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1011,274,1190,115,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,1374,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-244601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-human-interest","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news","18":"tag-tampa","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-tyler-oneill","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244601","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=244601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}