Why Give?
Misty came to the Portico for worship, because she wanted to be somewhere that felt normal. She stayed because of the people. She served beside housed volunteers at the Community Breakfast, the Cold Weather Shelter, and the clothing giveaways, and two of those volunteers trained as Resource Navigators so they could walk with her through shelters, bed bugs, illness, and the long wait for transitional housing. She got housed. She still serves every week.
Nobody wrote a check for that outcome. But someone's generosity paid for the room, the breakfast, the coffee, the staff who knew Misty's name, and the years of Sunday mornings it took for a stranger to become a friend and then a leader.
That is what your financial investment creates at The Portico: not a transaction, but the conditions in which transformation becomes possible.
Because of your generosity, each week:
- 150–200 neighbors are served a hot breakfast at tables, by volunteers, never from a line
- Roughly 525 people move through Portico space — housed and unhoused, students and retirees, seekers and skeptics
- 14 small groups, three recovery groups, and three justice teams meet
- The Portico Cafe employs and trains people leaving homelessness, addiction, and incarceration
- On the coldest nights, up to 70 people sleep somewhere warm
Giving is a spiritual practice before it is a financial one. We are saved by God's grace, and we give because generosity is how that grace moves through us and into the world. At The Portico it moves at the pace of relationship — a meal, a job, a name remembered, a seat kept open.
Ways to Give
Online. Recurring ACH is the most cost-effective way to give — it carries the lowest processing fee, so more of your gift reaches the mission. Credit and debit cards are also welcome.
In person. Offering boxes are located at the entrances to our worship spaces. Cash or check.
By mail. 500 West Platt St, Tampa Fl 33606.
Estimate of Giving. An Estimate of Giving card is not a bill — it is a plan. When you tell us what you intend to give in the year ahead, our leadership can staff, schedule, and commit to ministry with confidence instead of guesswork. [Submit your Estimate of Giving →][EOG-LINK]
Non-cash gifts. Publicly traded securities, closely held stock, real estate, personal property, gifts-in-kind, paid insurance policies, charitable lead trusts, and deferred gifts. These gifts often carry tax advantages that cash does not. Contact our finance team to begin, and consult your own tax advisor about your particular situation.
Buy Breadcoin. The Portico Cafe was Florida's first Breadcoin vendor. Each $3.00 token works like a community-wide gift certificate: you buy them, you hand them to a hungry neighbor, and that neighbor walks into a cafe and orders a meal like any other customer. It is one of the simplest ways to turn a dollar into dignity.
Buy the coffee. Book the space. The Portico Cafe is a working business whose profits fund the mission. Order beans, subscribe, cater a meeting, or host your event, wedding, or conference in the Community Hall or chapel. Every purchase supports job training and housing pathways.
Give your time. Sunday breakfast always needs volunteers, and so do the shelter, the bike program, and the justice teams. Volunteer with us →
Legacy Giving
Some gifts outlive the giver. Ministry at 1001 N. Florida Avenue is happening today partly because people we never met made provisions decades ago.
The Endowment Fund holds gifts in perpetuity and spends only the earnings, which means a single gift supports ministry every year, permanently. It steadies the church through hard economies and funds what annual giving cannot reach.
Legacy gifts may include bequests through your will, charitable remainder trusts, life estate gifts, life insurance, retirement plans, IRA qualified charitable distributions, gift annuities, real property, and appreciated securities. A gift may be made at any time, in honor or in memory of someone, or anonymously. A named fund may be established with a gift of $50,000 or more.
The Endowment Committee's booklet A Gift from the Heart offers guidance and forms for estate planning and end-of-life decisions — useful whether or not you ever give the church a dollar. The Florida United Methodist Foundation can also help you structure a planned gift.
If you are considering including The Portico in your estate plans, we would be glad to sit down with you. Please contact Meagan Kempton at 813.253.5388 or [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions
Gifts to Portico ministry flow through Hyde Park United Methodist's Ministry and Missions Fund, which supports staff, worship, formation, the Community Breakfast, justice initiatives, and building operations at the Portico. The Endowment Fund secures the long term. Our annual Impact Report shows how the whole church allocates what you give.