Nonprofit Spotlight: Philanthropitch

In the Spotlight: Philanthropitch

Philanthropitch’s vision is to ensure that nonprofits have the same access to opportunity as for-profit businesses, supplying capital, knowledge, collaboration and exposure for innovative nonprofits to scale their impact in their communities.

Each year, the Philanthropitch finalists represent a wide variety of important work being done in the community. We are proud to serve alongside the San Antonio community & invite you to join us for this year’s event on May 17th! More information can be found at philanthropitch.org/san-antonio. We celebrate all of the work of our San Antonio finalists and are pleased to spotlight a few of those past finalists below:

Alumni Feature: Culturingua - Nadia

Mavrakis(Chief Executive Office),

Finalist 2021 $62,262 Awarded

Culturingua’s Mission:

To increase intercultural understanding, promote economic empowerment, and help people better understand others from different cultural backgrounds — both their neighbors and people from the other side of the world.

What did the Philanthropitch & community support do for your organization?

Philanthropitch and San Antonio community support has helped us expand our Nourish to Flourish Culinary Entrepreneurship Accelerator and help it get on the path towards self-sustainability by providing funding and community momentum for an immigrant-operated food truck where aspiring entrepreneurs in our entrepreneurship accelerator gain hands on experience in a commercial kitchen environment and interacting with San Antonio customers.

What is an upcoming way to get involved with your organization?

People can volunteer to be mentors to aspiring entrepreneurs in our Nourish to Flourish Culinary Entrepreneurship Accelerator (see: culturingua.com/ support/volunteer).

Alumni Feature: Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative -

Talli Dolge (Chief Executive Officer)

Finalist 2020 $29,372 Awarded

Describe your organization’s mission in your own words.

The Mobile Mental Wellness Collaborative is a group of nonprofits who come together in the schools to provide no-cost mental wellness services for not only students, but also their families, teachers and school district staff. These services include individual and group counseling, grief support, substance use intervention, psychiatry, wellness education, wraparound services and more.

What did the Philanthropitch & community support do for your organization?

The framework of Philanthropitch has propelled us forward and set our program up for success: the storytelling and messaging from our pitch in countless meetings with funders and community supporters, the event connected us with funders who wanted to partner with us to increase the reach of our mental wellness program, and those connections led to more connections.

From the very beginning, the Philanthropitch team was invested in helping our program succeed, and we are very grateful for that support.

What is an upcoming way to get involved with your organization?

There are several ways the community can get involved with our program. The first is to help us spread the message that mental health is just as important as physical health. It is okay to say that you are not okay. We invite everyone to interact with us on Facebook and Instagram to continue the conversation. The more people talk about mental health, the more others will be comfortable seeking help. Speaking of seeking help, if you or someone you know is part of a school district our program serves, please reach out to us. You can find out more about the programming, including which school districts we currently serve, by visiting mentalwellnesscollaborative.org. And finally, as our program expands, the organization is looking to bring on new service providers so we can serve more people. If there are any mental health nonprofits who are interested in joining the Collaborative, please reach out to us so that we can discuss this further.

Alumni Feature: Maestro Entrepreneurship - Mariangela Zavala de Lopez (Executive Director)

Finalist 2021 $27,679 Awarded

Describe your organization’s mission in your own words.

To address inequity, the Maestro Entrepreneur seeks to empower underserved businesses. Through acceleration, incubation, and connection, provide every business the opportunity to grow beyond the $1 million threshold. Maestro serves as a steward for true economic impact to empower and encourage small businesses that are the heart of the greater San Antonio area.

What did the Philanthropitch & community support do for your organization?

Helped us tremendously through funding but most importantly, helped us build invaluable connections for future growth of the organization.

What is an upcoming way to get involved with your organization?

Register through our Buy Local Grow SA page to stay connected and find the latest resources to grow your business! Register through this link: maestrocenter.org/buy-local-grow-sasign-up/