Giving Tuesday 2021: Here Are Nonprofits That Could Use Your Help

TAMPA BAY, FL — It's the season of giving, and that gesture doesn't have to be exclusive to family and friends.

Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday) is a global movement founded in 2012 with the mission to build a world in which generosity is part of everyday life.

Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or cleaning out your closet and giving your clothes and shoes to a nonprofit thrift shop, everyone has something to give and every act of generosity counts.

This year, Giving Tuesday falls on Nov. 30, and you only have to look as far as your favorite nonprofit to participate.

Most organizations have reminders posted on their websites and Facebook pages asking residents to remember them this this Giving Tuesday.

"While we continue to face challenging circumstances, the data from this year and historical trends suggest plenty of opportunity to meaningfully connect and empower supporters to take action," said Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer for Giving Tuesday. "People are currently more motivated to give than in perhap any other time in history and across all cause areas."

You don't have to be a multi-millionaire to participate. According to Giving Tuesday, the majority of donations to nonprofits comes from small donations — in the $101 to $500 range.

In fact, during the pandemic, it was small donors, not major checks from big business, that sustained the nonprofits while they experienced a surge in demand for services.

Finding somewhere to donate time, services or funds is as simple as looking around your own neighborhood.

Your church, synagogue, mosque and other house of worships undoubtedly has efforts underway to feed and clothe the hungry, assist the elderly and provide support to those facing a crisis.

The neighborhood elementary school down the street most likely would welcome someone to tutor children, help raise money for new playground equipment or simply read stories to a class.

Nor does everyone have the time to be a "super volunteer" like Cindy Davis of Tampa, a tireless advocate for the Tampa Bay homeless and food-secure population. As a program director and 12-year volunteer for Feeding Tampa Bay's Trinity Cafe in downtown Tampa, a place where the homeless and hungry can get a hot meal and even better companionship, Davis jokes that she spends more time at the cafe than she does at home.

To get you started, here's a list of nonprofit organizations in Tampa Bay that are always in need of volunteers, funding and donations.

Feeding The Hungry

There's poverty and homelessness and then there's ALICE. ALICE stand for Asset Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed. These are the people who have jobs, sometimes two or three at once, and are working hard but just don't earn enough to pay their bills and put food on the table.

Caitlyn Peacock, executive director of the Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger, said the network developed The Hunger Gap Map as a tool to help organizations figure out where high-need areas are that can use more community resources.

The problem is more widespread than the general public realizes, Peacock said.

“The Hunger Gap Map is an important tool and we see it as a major part of the programmatic solution to hunger,” she said. “The purpose of this unique map is to translate food insecurity and direct service provider services into a single map that can be used for decision-making and program development.”

For example, one out of six seniors are skipping meals and going hungry to pay for medications, utility bills and transportation.

On the other end of the age spectrum, children in Tampa Bay qualifying for the free or reduced-cost lunch program at public schools have increased 12 percent over the past five years.

In Hillsborough County alone, 103,987 qualify for free meals and 13,670 for reduced meals.

Six out of 10 children in Tampa Bay live below the poverty line.

There are a variety of nonprofits working to feed the hungry, chief among them being Feeding Tampa Bay, which serves a 10-county area.

In October, the nonprofit opened a second Trinity Cafe in Lealman adjacent to the city of St. Petersburg to help serve 33,689,204 Pinellas County residents who are missing meals. At the same time, the organization opened the Feeding Pinellas Empowerment Center to provide residents with services such as assistance with federal benefits (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to purchase food, job training and nutrition education.

Last year, Feeding Tampa Bay served 18.4 million meals to Pinellas residents with the help of 59 food pantry partners.

In total, Feeding Tampa Bay partners with more than 450 charities and food pantries to help feed the hungry in the 10-county area. Click here for a list of partners or to volunteer.

Every dollar donated to Feeding Tampa Bay places meals directly on the tables of local families facing increased need. Find all the ways you can give back by clicking here.

Metropolitan Ministries, which serves Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, collaborates with 65 neighborhood organizations to help the 33,000 famileis on the verge of homelessness.

Currently, the biggest need, said Executive Director Tim Marks, is food.

“We need turkeys, and we need a lot of them,” Marks said.

Donating a box of food, hosting a meal drive or volunteering at any of the collection sites, including the Tampa and Pasco Holiday Tents, will help without taking a lot of time and money, he said.

Even little ones can take part. Feeding Tampa Bay encourages children as young as 5 to help sort and box food with an accompanying adult. Meals on Wheels Tampa welcomes adolescents to deliver warm meals and gifts.

Meal on Wheels Tampa Bay Executive Director is asking residents to consider giving funds to support the 800 elderly and homebound residents who are living in their homes but don't always have the funds for a hot meal or nutritious fruits and vegetables.

"With the support of our community partners this #GivingTuesday, we can provide fresh produce to all 800 homebound and senior meal recipients one Saturday each month. These Saturday morning deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables have been a huge success," King said.

Click here to donate.

The Community Food Pantry at 13115 South Village Drive, Tampa, has already served 788,435 meals to hungry children and families this year. Give a one-time or a monthly recurring donation by visiting the website.

Kids In Need

Always donation-worthy is the Marine Corps annual Toys for Tots campaign to collect toys for children that would otherwise go without on Christmas morning.

The Toys for Tots Kringle Jingle 5K Run/Walk will take place Saturday, Dec. 4 at 7 a.m. at The Concourse in Shady Hills, home of Safety Town. Here's a chance to get in some exercise while donating to a good cause.

The course will be both on paved road and rolling Florida trails. A post-race party will include breakfast. There will be T-shirts, medals and age-group awards.

Click here to register.

J. Ben Harrill Recreation Center, 2830 Gulf Trace Blvd., Holiday, will be one of the distribution sites for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive. In addition to donating toys, the center could use help with the distribution on Dec. 18. If you're a family in need, call 727-788-2330 to register.

You can find donation bins for Toys for Tots at area businesses, grocery stores, government offices and libraries throughout Tampa Bay.

Safety Harbor residents are invited to adopt a family at the Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center, 1003 Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. St. N. You can register on the center's website or at the center by Dec. 10. The center is seeking gifts for children age 18 and under along with donations to help families pay their water and electric bills.

Or head to the Dunedin Brewery Saturday, Dec. 11 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. for the Row Jomah Holiday Toy Drive with Shoeless Soul performing. Bring an unwrapped toy and make a donation to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Christmas Sharing Project, which identifies at-need children and families in Pinellas County throughout the year and then provides them with gifts and food for the holidays.

Buy a basketball, headphones or toy car for a foster child. You can go on the Hillsborough County Children's Services wish list to donate a Christmas gift for a child or donate funds to the Department of Children's Services, 3191 Mangum Lane, Tampa, 33618.

The Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization that helps at-risk youth achieve academic, social and economic success by keeping them engaged in their education and acquiring practical skills necessary to succeed at life. The foundation operates the Chi Chi Rodriguez Golf Club and Driving Range businesses, as well as the Chi Chi Academy and First Tee - Clearwater educational programs, located on the Chi Chi Rodriguez Youth Foundation campus in Clearwater. All proceeds from golf operations support the educational programs. Donate here.

Animals In Need

Don't forget the community's animals in need. The nonprofit Suncoast Primate Sanctuary, 4600 Alternate U.S. 19, Palm Harbor, could use donations of cleaning supplies, peanut butter, peanuts, paper products, fresh fruits and vegetables, a weed eater and a bleach sprayer to help feed the primates and keep their living spaces spiffy. Just drop off donations between now and Dec. 24.

The Humane Society of the United States takes on puppy mills, factory farms, the fur trade, trophy hunting, animal cosmetics testing and other cruel industries. Through its rescue, response and sanctuary work, as well as other hands-on animal care services, it helps thousands of animals every year and fights all forms of animal cruelty to achieve the vision behind the name: a humane society. Donations can be made here.

The Florida Aquarium made international news with its groundbreaking research that could regenerate the world's imperiled coral reefs. The aquarium also operates a marine animal hospital where it rescues and rehabilitates protected and endangered sea turtles.

See related story: Florida Aquarium Makes Historic Breakthrough To Save Coral Reefs

Residents can help continue this invaluable work by giving to the nonprofit aquarium on Giving Tuesday. In 2020, supporters helped underwrite six months of food and medicine for the aquarium's animals.

"This year, we hope you will help us underwrite an entire year of food and medicine for our thousands of animals by giving a gift to The Florida Aquarium," said Kara E. Wagner, chief development officer.

All money raised today will support the Give from the Heart…For the Heart of the Sea campaign. Every day, the aquarium spends $835 - which equals $24,000 per month or $288,000 per year – on food and medicine to provide animal care. To help, click here.

Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center helps the community's neediest animals. The PRC is asking for donations that will benefit resident shelter animals, pets in foster care, and the Safety Net Program that keeps pets from being turned into the shelter by families in crisis. See the Pet Resource Center Wish List here.

The nonprofit Clearwater Marine Aquarium is seeking support this Giving Tuesday to save one of Florida's most beloved marine mammals — the manatee. Due to red tide, boat strikes and vanishing seagrass, the main sustenance for manatees, this gentle sea cow is in crisis.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, an unprecedented number of manatees — more than 1,000 — have died in 2021.

The aquarium, whose mission is to rescue, care for and rehabilitate marine animals, is raising funds to build a manatee rescue center. Click here to donate.

See related story: Aquarium To Turn Winter's Old Home Into Manatee Rescue Center

Show your love for animals and ZooTampa this holiday season with a donation on #GivingZOOday. As a leader in environmental conservation, ZooTampa helps to save species locally, nationally and globally by educating and connecting guests with threatened and endangered creatures, and participating in the Species Survival Plan program through the Associations of Zoos and Aquariums.

ZooTampa is a nonprofit organization with an unwavering commitment to protect and preserve wildlife and wild places throughout the world. The zoo is 93 percent self-funded and relies on donations to provide expert care to the more than 1,000 animals that call ZooTampa home; deliver impactful educational programs to thousands of students each year; and for the rescue, rehabilitation and release of native Florida wildlife.

A gift of any size will make a big difference. Just one dollar can buy four large carrots for the orangutan family, and $65 can feed Mickey the Florida panther for a week.

Art And Culture

The 1926 historic landmark Tampa Theatre, designed by famed theater architect John Eberson and built by Paramount Pictures, has planned a pre-film happy hour and film-themed bingo games from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday to raise funds to maintain the nonprofit theater. Participants can win prizes such a theater membership, passses to the 2022 Hollywood Awards Night Watch Party and free popcorn for a year. Admission is free and each bingo card costs $5 or $20 for five. Click here for more information.

On Labor Day 2018, the nonprofit Gulfport History Museum at 5301 28th Ave. S., Gulfport, caught fire. While the museum was able to salvage many of the artifacts and all the paper archives, it remained closed for a year, reopening in the summer of 2019.

Just as the museum was getting back back on its feet, the pandemic struck, said museum President Cathy Salustri Loper.

"Our financial situation is not healthy, and we need help to get us back on track," Loper said.

The museum is seeking donations for a worthy cause.

"We’re currently raising funds to preserve and digitize our records so that they’re safeguarded from future disasters, and also so that our newspaper archives, photographs and histories can be accessed from anywhere on the globe," Loper said.

For the nonprofit Tampa Repertory Theatre, producing and performing innovative, provacative and classic theater is a mission that is only made possible through the support of community donations.

Donations allow the theater to bring to the stage the two shows being presented in December.

"The Giver," adapted by Eric Coble from the award-winning book by Lois Lowry, will be performed Dec. 2-12, and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," based on a novel by Mark Haddon, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Emilia Sargent, in cooperation with ThinkTank Theatre, will be presented Dec. 4-19. To donate to keep theater alive, click here. To support the upcoming performances, click here.

Social Justice

Florida's first-of-its-kind LGBTQ Resource Center at the Gulfport Public Library is making its first-ever fundraising appeal on Giving Tuesday.

"Because of our (wonderful and deeply valued) relationship with the Gulfport Public Library, everything we do is free or donation-based – and event attendance is exploding," Susan Gore, resource center board president, said. "Pre-COVID, 145 lovers of lesbian literature packed the Gulfport Library for ReadOut 2020, our last live event. This past February, ReadOut drew almost 1,000 online participants from 22 countries for 2½ days of Zoom programming. We expect the same growth spike in June as ArtOut presents a month-long live and online exhibit of LGBTQ+ artists’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic."

The center is seeking help to ensure these and other programs continue to be high-quality, Gore said.

"Another reason to consider donating is to recognize COVID is not the first 20th-century pandemic. Between 1981 and 2018, more than 700,000 Americans died from AIDS-related complications. Another 15,000 Americans died during 2019," Gore said. "World AIDS Day is Dec. 1. Lessons learned from the AIDS pandemic have helped focus responses to COVID in significant, positive ways."

Residents can direct a contribution to ReadOut 2022 or World AIDS Day by noting which one they'd like funds go to on the check memo line mailed to the LGBTQ Resource Center, Gulfport Public Library, 5501 28th Ave. S, Gulfport, FL 33707. Or make a donation online through Paypal by clicking here.

Providing Homes For Families, Veterans

It's the Habitat Giving Tuesday Match. Give to Habitat for Humanity by midnight Tuesday and your donation will be matched up to $100,000, thanks to Habitat for Humanity partners.

Donations will go to helping build safe, affordable homes for families in need. Click here to give.

Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco Counties has built 721 homes for families who otherwise couldn't afford to be homeowners.

Habitat for Humanity of Hillsborough County has built or renovated more than 200 homes throughout Hillsborough County including homes for veterans through its Veterans Initiative.

Each year during Veterans Build Week of Service, volunteers help make repairs to the homes of seven local veterans in need.

Starbucks Foundation Launches 'You Vote, We Give'

Starbucks is keeping the holiday giving going with You Vote, We Give – a holiday giving program that extends Giving Tuesday into December. From Dec. 1-15, customers and partners (employees) will be able to cast their vote for one of three causes.

Determined by these votes, The Starbucks Foundation will donate a cumulative $1 million to the following organizations strengthening communities: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Direct Relief and World Central Kitchen.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is the nation’s largest donor- and volunteer-supported mentoring network. Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers “Bigs” and children “Littles," ages 5 through young adulthood in communities across the country.
• Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies. As part of Starbucks' efforts to strengthen and uplift communities, The Starbucks Foundation continues to invest in initiatives that provide emergency assistance to those in need while also helping build a path towards recovery and resilience.
• World Central Kitchen uses the power of food to nourish communities and strengthen economies through times of crisis and beyond. Since 2016, Starbucks has been committed to partnering with and working alongside hunger-relief organizations to find solutions to help fight hunger.

These organizations were selected because of their long relationships with Starbucks and focus on the key issues of empowering youth, supporting frontline responders and alleviating hunger relief.

The organization with the most votes will receive $500,000, second place will receive $300,000 and third place runners up will receive $200,000. The results will be announced on Dec. 16.

Brewing Funds The Cure

Cigar City Brewing is partnering once again with Brew Bus Brewing and the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation in the Brewing Funds the Cure initiative in a national fundraising project created in 2017 to help fund pediatric cancer research.

The centerpiece of Brewing Funds the Cure is the release of Rising Hope IPA, a fruited IPA designed by CCB Brewmaster Wayne Wambles and Brew Bus Brewing's Head Brewer Kevin Butler, with proceeds going directly to the NPCF.

The 2021 version of the Rising Hope IPA will be available in 12-ounce cans and on draft exclusively at the Spruce Street Taproom, 3924 W. Spruce St., Tampa, for a limited time beginning on Giving Tuesday, Nov. 30.

Brewing Funds the Cure offers a recipe developed by Wambles and Butler, along with brewing materials donated by Yakima Chief Hops, Country Malt Group and Amoretti Craft Purée, with packaging and point-of-sale assets donated by Taphandles, Boelter and Blue Label Packaging Co., to a single craft brewery in each U.S. state.

Each brewery is invited to put their own spin on the CCB/BBB recipe to help contribute funding to the NPCF and to raise visibility of courageous children and their families.

In two years of the expanded Brewing Funds the Cure initiative, craft brewers across the country have raised more than $325,000 for pediatric cancer research.

All proceeds from cans and kegs of Rising Hope IPA will go to support the National Pediatrics Cancer Foundation's efforts to find less toxic, more effective treatments for pediatric cancer.