A St. Petersburg museum dedicated to motherhood. A nonprofit dental clinic in Clearwater serving the working poor and other adult patients. A community placemaking and public art program at the University Area Community Development Corporation’s Harvest Hope Park in North Tampa. A hands-on marine science summer camp for underserved youth in South St. Petersburg.
Those are just a sample of the nonprofits that are enhancing programs to improve the quality of life in communities around the region with the support of competitive grant funding from Community Foundation Tampa Bay. The competitive grant program had its largest year yet in 2025, awarding more than $2.2 million to 84 nonprofit organizations in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus counties. The 2025 grant cycle also hit an all-time high of 363 applications.
“That’s unheard of,” Community Foundation Tampa Bay Senior Director of Community Investment Brandi Sanchez says of the volume of applicants. “We have never seen that before. It showed us what’s going on in the community and gave us a good understanding of the needs post-hurricane. It also makes it a more competitive process.”
The grantmaking public charity’s competitive grants support nonprofit programs working in five focus areas: economic opportunity, environmental resiliency and sustainability, physical health and mental well-being, quality child and youth education, and vibrant and engaged communities. Through those target areas, Community Foundation casts a wide net to meet community needs across the region. Food insecurity, transportation and support services for seniors, academic enrichment for low-income students, early childhood education, female empowerment and leadership, workforce training, nutrition education, environmental restoration, small business assistance, the arts, medical, vision, dental, and mental health care, parenting support, and life skills for teens are all funded. Domestic violence victims, children and adults experiencing homelessness, at-risk children and teens, low-income youth, visually impaired individuals, trauma victims, human trafficking victims, youth in foster care, seniors who lack transportation access, people living with severe mental illness, and individuals with disabilities are among the vulnerable populations served.
Behind each innovative program funded, there’s a community nonprofit with its own unique story and mission. Here are some.
Museum of Motherhood
Located in the heart of St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts District, the one-of-a-kind
Museum of Motherhood (MoM) explores and spotlights “the art, science, and herstory of mothers.”
“Our mission specifically is to spark great conversations, create compelling exhibits, and inspire and educate,” says founder and Executive Director Martha Joy Rose.
On the front of the converted warehouse building that houses MoM, New York-based artist Raisa Nosova’s mural “Woman of Light” celebrates the museum’s mission. Inside the museum’s space on Fairfield Avenue, mom-made murals and artwork depict the art, science, and herstory of motherhood. Step through a doorway to the Escape Womb experience, where you’ll have to solve health and wellness puzzles about conception, gestation, and labor to escape the interactive exhibit and “be born.”
MoM also supports mothers through programming like pre- and post-natal fitness
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Museum of MotherhoodStorytime at the Museum of Motherhoodclasses, lactation consulting, art playdates for moms and children, a Black maternal health brunch and mini-conference, and personal empowerment sessions on topics like returning to work and grief. In early September, nonprofit Champions for Children began providing free lactation consultation and breastfeeding support services at MoM, with BayCare supporting that program.
The museum is using a $25,000 grant from Community Foundation Tampa Bay to further expand its community programming, classes, workshops, and support groups, says Mary Havlock, a mother of twins who handles partnerships and sponsorships for MoM. She says health and wellness education has been a priority since the start of 2025. That focus is producing results. In surveys, a large majority of participants were more aware of mental health resources and strategies to reduce their risks, experienced reduced stress levels with the help of events at MoM, and gained practical knowledge for their caregiver roles.
“That’s what we’re trying to provide to the community, equipping them with strategies and resources, helping them reduce stress, and empowering them in their role as caregivers,” Havlock says.
Rose launched the museum in 2003 in New York City, where she taught at Manhattan College.
“It was this organic inspiration from my own experience and noticing the need,” she recalls. “I had four children, and I saw firsthand how mothers struggled with certain things…There was struggle and silence with mental health issues, and they had nowhere to go. I noticed that women felt isolated in their homes. They weren’t sure where to gather.”
During three years at a location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, MoM had 40,000 visitors pass through. An artist and a scholar, Rose also fronted a rock band, Housewives on Prozac, founded the Mamapalooza Festival, spoke at conferences, and was part of a movement to add mother studies to college curriculum.
In 2017, she moved to St. Pete, bringing MoM with her. She launched it as a nonprofit in 2019. Then COVID-19 hit. Shifting gears, she hosted artists-in-residence at her bungalow in Kenwood, opening her house to artists from across the country who wanted to work in a safe space. She hosted community dinners in her garden, put on a speaker series, and led home tours of the artifacts from the museum.
The museum moved to the Warehouse Arts District in 2023, only to move a short distance down Gallery Row in 2024 to make way for the St. Pete Athletic paddle and social club. MoM settled into its new space in December 2024 and is now expanding to add more exhibit space.
It’s also continuing to build its community. Sierra Clark was invited to the museum on a mom playdate and found the support system she needed after 25 years working in health care.
“I know how to care for other people, but then you don’t always care for yourself,” she says.
Clark became a volunteer and is now the museum’s Community Leadership & Empowerment Facilitator.
“I realize how a lot of moms, including mine, have struggled without access to something like this,” she says. “I realize that was a struggle for a lot of women in my life – that they didn’t have a place of autonomy to be themselves free of all those things, and still be a great mom, a great person…“What Joy’s done is create a revolving Rolodex of the woman’s lived experience. It’s helped dispel narratives you believe about yourself as a woman and a minority woman. I got to erase so many made-up things that I believed about myself by working in this space.”
Rose reflects on MoM’s journey.
“It’s a 22-year project that’s gone from one person to more than 25 volunteers and $55,000 in community support,” she says. “I think our biggest thing is we’ve been so resilient. The thing is to just keep going. Don’t be disappeared. Care work is historically, herstorically, invisible, whether you’re caring for your parents or caring for kids. It’s a complicated topic without a lot of support. Making things visible and having a dialogue about them shines a light on them.”
Tampa Bay Watch
Environmental stewardship nonprofit
Tampa Bay Watch and Community Foundation Tampa Bay’s working relationship stretches back to the early years of both organizations in the 1990s. Over the years, Community Foundation grants have supported a variety of Tampa Bay Watch’s restoration and education programs. This year, $25,000 in funding is part of a multi-year grant for Summer Camp on the Move, a hands-on marine science camp for underserved youth in South St. Petersburg that launched in partnership with New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Tampa Bay Watch Executive Director of Education Leah Biery says the program started after the environmental group noticed multiple scholarship spots for its summer camps routinely going unfilled each year.
“We were scratching our heads about why people weren’t taking the opportunity to attend these free pop-up camps,” she says. “We asked around to our community partners, including New Hope. We told them we have these free slots available and we would love to see more kids from South St. Pete signing up.“
The church leadership’s feedback was an eye-opener, Biery says.
“They said traditional camps just aren’t structured to meet the needs of the people in our community,” she recalls.
They faced barriers like complicated work schedules that didn’t line up with the camp hours, limited transportation access, kids who couldn’t afford gear, families that couldn’t pack a lunch, and children who didn’t know how to swim, Biery says.
“There were a lot of factors we hadn’t even thought of,” she says. “We said, ‘Well, why don’t we create a camp together that’s easy for the families to sign up for?’”
Summer Camp on the Move launched at New Hope in 2024 as a two-week camp
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Tampa Bay WatchTampa Bay Watch's Summer Camp on the Move is a hands-on marine science camp for children in South St. Petersburg with one week for six to eight-year-olds, and the second for nine to 12-year-olds. Grant funding went toward the costs of support personnel, transportation, supplies, healthy meals, and affordable childcare. Field trips, science labs, and art projects introduced the children in the camp to marine science, while mindfulness lessons built confidence and life skills.
“It really worked,” Biery says. “All of the kids had their first opportunity to snorkel. All of them wanted to come back.”
This year’s grant expanded the camp from two to three weeks, opening it up to more children and families. Biery says Community Foundation’s support and consideration allowed Tampa Bay Watch to focus on building a successful camp.
“They work to understand the needs of nonprofits and the challenges nonprofits face,” she says. “I feel like, from start to finish, their process is so supportive and helpful. It’s very clear. They don’t create processes that require a ton of time, because nonprofit employees are already spread really thin. They’re always available to answer questions. They were very responsive and focused on creating a process that works for people. They’ve really put in the effort to understand and support the needs of the people in this community who are trying to do this work.”
Community Dental Clinic
Back in 2009, a community assessment identified access to dental care as the number one social service need in Pinellas County. The Salvation Army, Clearwater Free Clinic, and Arc of Tampa Bay responded by collaborating to establish a nonprofit dental clinic serving uninsured adults who earn 200 percent or less of the federal poverty line and are Pinellas County residents.
Community Dental Clinic opened its doors in Clearwater in 2013, initially focusing on emergency care to keep patients from making expensive and ineffective trips to the emergency room.
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Christopher CurryCommunity Dental Clinic Executive Director Theresa White“The ERs were getting flooded with dental care that they couldn’t take care of,” says the clinic’s Executive Director Theresa White
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In 2022, the clinic expanded its mission to provide comprehensive care, complete with preventive care like routine exams and cleanings, and treatment plans for individual patients.
“We’re fully comprehensive,” White says. “So we do x-rays, cleanings, fillings, extractions, root canals, dentures, crowns, everything you would get in a private practice for the most part. It’s all at no cost for the patients.”
The clinic is also able to make same-day crowns, a valuable service for the patients it serves.
“A lot of our patients are the working poor,” White says. “For them to take time off work is very hard. The more we can do same-day in-house, the easier it is for the patient and the better the cost for us as well.”
Thanks to a substantial grant from the Ruth and JO Stone Foundation, Community Dental Clinic just moved from its original 3,400 square-foot location off Woodlawn Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to a new, 6,500 square-foot building at 1390 S. Missouri Ave. The clinic will celebrate the move with a ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on October 2nd. Inside the spacious clinic, there’s a new 3-D printer, dry and wet labs, several open bays for cleanings and exams, private rooms for restorative work and more sensitive procedures, and a community room. Behind the front desk is Carol’s Corner, a stocked food pantry that provides patients who’ve had procedures like root canals and extractions with three to four days of food so they don’t have to worry about shopping for groceries.
Last year at its old location, Community Dental Clinic provided $2.3 million in free services over 3,900 visits and 13,000 procedures. White thinks they can double those numbers if they have the providers.
“Right now, we have a shortage,” she says. “That’s why this grant is so important.”
A $17,264 grant from Community Foundation Tampa Bay will allow the clinic to hire a part-time hygienist instead of continuing to rely solely on hygienists from the Department of Health coming to help a few days a week. Right now, there’s a nine-month wait for hygiene appointments, White says. The part-time hygienist should cut that in half. If more funding partners provide the support to take the position full-time, the wait time for an appointment could be cut to six weeks, she says.
The grant will also fund educational classes in the community room on oral hygiene, nutrition, and smoking cessation. Those will help address dental care and overall health.
“We have a lot of patients who are diabetic and have high blood pressure,” White says. “Diet goes along with oral health.”
University Area CDC
The University Area Community Development Corporation’s Harvest Hope Park opened in 2019 and quickly became the community gathering place in this North Tampa neighborhood. Public art and creative placemaking have played a significant role in establishing the park as a community focal point. There are the Love, Hope, Peace, and Joy sculptures, the vibrant mural on the Harvest Hope Center, the
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University Area CDCVibrant mural art covers Harvest Hope Center Family Unit sculpture, and the “Honoring Veterans: Past to Present” ceramic tile mural.
A $25,000 Community Foundation grant will continue the community-building efforts and add to the park’s public art installations.
University Area CDC Chief Community Development Officer Erica Moody says the grant will fund a series of art workshops for residents, with the Prodigy Cultural Arts program working with the community’s youth and Uptown Artist Collective running programs for adults. They expect to reach more than 50 residents with the initiative, which will culminate next year with a community paint day to add more mural art to the park.
“The artists will meet with the community, see what kind of art they want,” Moody says. “It’s going to be completely community-driven, and there are going to be lots of opportunities to engage.”
Looking ahead
Community Foundation’s 2026 competitive grant application cycle opens on December 1, with letters of intent due by January 7, 2026, and final applications due by March 2, 2026.
Brandi Sanchez, Community Foundation Tampa Bay’s Senior Director of Community Investment, shares some of the criteria they look for in an application.
“One of them is sustained impact,” she says. “We want to know how this project is going to impact the vulnerable population you identified for years to come. Another piece is collaboration. We love it when organizations work together, because a lot of organizations have similar missions, or they’re working with the same population. So let’s come together and fund something that makes sense for everyone. Best practice is another area. How is what you’re doing the best practice to help the vulnerable population you’re working with? Vulnerable population is another one of our criteria. All projects have to support vulnerable populations.”
For more information, go to Community Foundation Tampa Bay competitive grants
This story is produced through an underwriting agreement between Community Foundation Tampa Bay and 83 Degrees.