As an Ambassador for Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, I’ve learned a lot about the important work that the organization is doing to support social change and to promote charitable giving in Pierce County.
Pierce County Connected
In response to COVID-19 and the associated public health crisis, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation partnered with United Way of Pierce County earlier this year to help address our community’s most urgent needs. Together, they launched the Pierce County Connected fund. GTCF seeded the fund with $750K and committed another million in matching dollars as an incentive to encourage regional philanthropists to join the effort. Those regional donors blew past the matching goal, and the fund balance quickly rose to $7.4 million dollars. To date, the fund has distributed $5.46 million to local non-profit organizations in need.
Most recipient organizations have fallen into one of three categories – food access, housing/shelter and child care. The dollars received have helped them to provide basic human services to Pierce County’s most vulnerable populations. Federal dollars from the CARES act have been slow to filter down to these non-profit organizations, and additional federal funding is uncertain. With the impact of the pandemic expected to extend well into next year, the need will only grow.
One of the great things about Tacoma’s relatively small size is the opportunity that that offers to get involved, to be engaged and to make a difference – in small ways and big. It’s a community that comes together in challenging times, led by great organizations like United Way of Pierce County and Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. This link provides a list of the organizations that have received funds from Pierce County Connected.
If you have the capacity, please think about continuing the good work of Pierce County Connected by supporting one of these organizations. The need is greater than you may realize.
Mark Pinto is a top-producing Realtor with Windermere Chambers Bay, specializing in residential real estate in Tacoma, Gig Harbor, University Place and Lakewood.
Mark Pinto: (253) 318-0923
MarkPinto@windermere.com
