Hypatia Collective, the 501(c) 4 organization, is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Clearwater Urban Leadership Coalition to provide nonprofit capacity-building services to small nonprofits in the North Greenwood area. The services provided include grant writing, research, evaluation, strategic planning, nonprofit administrative support, nonprofit leadership development, and capacity training and workshops.Â
Local Need
According to the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg’s 2018 Nonprofit Assessment Report, approximately 82% of Pinellas nonprofits have assets of less than $10,000. Of the approximately 6,200 nonprofits in Pinellas County, only 1,004 have assets of more than $10,000. According to the report, these numbers demonstrate a financial capacity smaller than the national average. Almost 40% of nonprofit respondents stated that their annual operating budget was less than $250,000. For many of these nonprofits, their main source of funding is government sources; administrative capacity is critical to these sources of funding as they require extensive effort in applying, administering, monitoring, and reporting. These efforts are typically funded by administrative fees, indirect expenses, and overhead built into grants; limits on overhead and indirect expenses are common for these contracts if allowed at all. However, many government contracts often do not pay the true value of the services nonprofits provide.
Almost 35% of nonprofits reported that less than 15% of their revenue is unrestricted. Over 70% of respondents stated that they would like to see an increase in unrestricted funding as the top way to increase the capacity of their nonprofit. Additionally, 42% of nonprofits reported that over the last three years, they did not meet their fundraising goals. Almost three-quarters of respondents stated that the majority of their gifts in the past 24 months were less than $5,000 and over half were unable to recruit donors at $5,000 and above on an annual basis.
Respondents overwhelmingly ranked fundraising and grant writing as their greatest need with marketing and communications, and technology and infrastructure following. Without these unrestricted funds, many nonprofits struggle with meeting their administrative needs (like grant writing) as well as planning and implementing new, innovative programming.
Funding Source
The partnership was funded through a City of Clearwater American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant. Hypatia Collective successfully applied for funding to help small nonprofits in the North Greenwood Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) in early 2023.
