Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
/OVERVIEW: The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg supports South Pinellas County, Florida, in the areas of healthy behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors of health, and physical environment.
IP TAKE: This funder is laser-focused on South Pinellas County. It has been investing more into its flexible funding and capacity-building support based on community feedback. Its unique approach reflects on FHSP’s collaborative nature, which often seeks productive relationships with community organizations and leaders focused on a systems approach to racial equity.
This accessible funder accepts proposals year round, but make sure to reach out to them first to learn more about their granting process, which they admittedly change often according to rising community needs.
PROFILE: Formed in 2013, the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg (FHSP) is a health legacy funder that resulted from the sale of the nonprofit Bayfront Health in St. Petersburg, Florida. The funder’s history dates back to 1906, when St. Petersburg received its first centralized health facility with 15 clinic beds. The foundation has evolved in recent years, even overhauling it’s former mission to “achieve health equity through racial equity by listening humbly, learning fearlessly, and leading courageously impacting systems change.” Uniquely, the foundation evolved from a “traditional grantmaking” approach, complete with grant cycles, to a “strategic investments model (listen and learn)” approach, which relies on community feedback to inform it’s areas of grantmaking interest. In doing so, community members and leaders can submit their suggestions directly to the foundation through three portals arranged by issue. However, racial equity remains at the center of all of it’s giving, providing awards and grants through a racial equity lens.
Previous grantmaking includes tobacco cessation, diet and exercise, alcohol and drug addiction, reproductive health, access to and utilization of care, quality of care, education, employment, income, family and social support, community safety, and air and water quality. However, it appears grantmaking is more open-ended here, provided that desired giving occurs through a racial equity lens.
Grants for Community Development, Racial Equity, Health and Environment
FHSP prefers an open, strategic investments model towards it’s giving. Providing various kinds of “fuel,” FHSP offers a variety of support beyond traditional giving. It has since eliminated it’s previous capacity-building mini-grants, empowerment grants, and transformative grants, but remains a collaborative and cross-sectional grantmaker. It conducts all giving through a racial equity lens, so take note when you approach them for funding requests.
Grants for racial equity focus more on systems change than justice and movement-building. FHSP’s racial equity work focuses on “racial equity education, listening, and relationship building. This work scales services, advances knowledge, grows networks devoted to racial and health equity and/or improves capacity and health outcomes for BIPOC residents in Pinellas County.”
In order for racial equity to occur, FHSP believes that three shifts must occur in order to achieve systems change:
The public narrative about BIPOC must change to uplift authentic stories and facts.
The way institutions treat BIPOC must change to remove internal biases and barriers.
Policies with discriminatory roots must change to be fair for all.
Acting as a self-proclaimed “connector,” FHSP often builds relationships between various community stakeholders to achieve it’s mission. While not the only avenue for funding related to racial equity, FHSP also organizes the Racial Equity Loan Fund.
Important Grant Details:
The foundation’s giving ranges widely from $10,000 to $100,000. View lists of recent grantees by year on each of the grant program pages of the funder’s website.
Funding is restricted to South Pinellas County, defined as south of Ulmerton Road and east of Seminole Boulevard. The zip codes in FHSP’s service area are 33701, 33702, 33703, 33704, 33705, 33707, 33709, 33710, 33711, 33712, 33713, 33714, 33716, 33762, 33772, 33773, 33777, 33778, 33781, and 33782.
This funder offers an array of support beyond traditional grantmaking by giving support in forming relationships (as well as support developing partnerships between other community organizations), research, physical space, strategic support, funding, and more.
FHSP accepts unsolicited grant requests from nonprofits and uses an online grants portal to accept applications.
Direct general questions to the foundation staff at 727-865-4650, by email at grants@healthystpete.foundation, or via online form.
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