Nonprofits around the nation — much like companies in the private sector — are competing for the best and brightest coming out of local and state colleges and universities.

In Florida, where charitable giving is on an upward trajectory and more than one in 10 workers are employed by mission-driven organizations, the growing nonprofit sector is one of the state’s leading employers.

83 Degrees takes a look at a few rising stars among the more than 10,000 nonprofits that call the Tampa Bay region home as they go about the business of pursuing a social mission.

From directing an organization of three employees to one with 70, each leader took a different path to get to where she is today. What they have in common is a strong drive for personal and organizational success and the realization that what it will ultimately take to achieve their goals is the community.

Jessica Muroff, CEO, Girl Scouts of West Central Florida

A University of South Florida graduate, Jessica Muroff spent most of her working career in the for-profit world. Although she enjoyed her day jobs, it was her community and nonprofit board involvement that really tugged at her heartstrings.

“I wanted my career to be something where I was working every day to make a change in the community,” says Muroff. “It’s who I am.”

Almost four years ago, she took the plunge into the nonprofit world and joined Frameworks of Tampa Bay as Director of Marketing. She says it was the best career choice she ever made because it helped her transition into the nonprofit world and prepared her for her next role.

Growing up, Muroff was involved in Girl Scouts at the brownie level. When she read the former CEO of the West Central Florida region was promoted, creating a vacancy, she felt as if her dream job had opened up.

The Girl Scouts of West Central Florida serves 19,500 girls and 8,500 adult members/volunteers in an eight counties, including Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk. As CEO, Muroff oversees 69 employees and a $6.6M budget.

With such a broad membership base and large budget, fundraising is paramount to staying afloat.

Muroff, a graduate of the University of South Florida with a master’s degree in Secondary English Education and a bachelor’s in Mass Communications, sees a trend in both local and national nonprofits that are diversifying their funding sources to provide multiple layers of sustainability. Girl Scouts sees its biggest opportunity for funding growth with individual donors, and is building those relationships in an effort to increase awareness of programming and engagement in its mission.

The council also places a high value on its volunteers. A typical troop leader contributes an average of 200 volunteer hours per year. With changing demographics and increasing demands for volunteers’ time, Girl Scouts is evaluating its operational and delivery models, using technology, for example, to enable volunteers to contribute in the most effective ways.

Girl Scouts also leverages local partnerships, such as working with K-12 schools to deliver the state-funded Get Real program, which provides literacy skills and self-esteem development to at-risk youth.

“When our community invests in girls and their success, that leads to that community being successful,” Muroff says.

Mandy Cloninger, Executive Director, Trinity Café

During her first job as a student at the University of Florida, Mandy Cloninger learned early on that fundraising could be a career path for her. After moving to Tampa, she continued to hone her skills through various positions at places like USF Health. It was ultimately an International mission trip to Guatemala with Hyde Park United Methodist Church where she was truly impacted by the need that exists in the world.

“My heart was broken there,” says Cloninger. “I had never seen poverty like that.” After returning home, she immediately started volunteering at Metropolitan Ministries [http://www.metropolitanministries.org/], and later joined their staff.

In May 2015, Cloninger took the next step in her philanthropic journey when she became executive director of Trinity Café [http://www.trinitycafe.org/] in Tampa.

The café is a nonprofit restaurant that serves an average of 280 hungry and homeless each day. The experience is truly unique. Each guest is seated at a table that is hosted by one of 30 volunteers who serves and builds a relationship with the guests while they enjoy a three-course meal prepared by resident Chef Alfred.

Cloninger, who earned a master’s degree in Mass Communications at the University of Florida and a bachelor’s in Public Relations at Texas Tech, manages a staff of two and oversees a budget of $730,000. Key to the café’s mission and financial sustainability is relationships with other nonprofits in the region. For example, Feeding America Tampa Bay, assists with bulk food purchases. The Tampa Hillsborough Homeless Initiative provides housing assessments for the guests at the café once per week. Trader Joe’s provides food through their partner pickup program.

This follows a trend Cloninger is seeing in philanthropy of more collaboration among organizations with a similar mission. “No one organization can solve hunger or homelessness,” says Cloninger, “It takes a broad-based community approach.”

The café plans to leverage even more partnerships in the future to expand its reach, utilizing the existing kitchen to prepare meals, transport them to areas of need and serve in partnership with churches or community organizations.

“It breaks my heart for the families and the kids, and for the folks who can’t make it to the café,” says Cloninger, noting that some lack transportation or the resources to get there.

Natasha Nascimento, Founder and Executive Director, Redefining Refuge

Natasha Nascimento has a passion for helping children. Originally from Johanasburg, South Africa, she moved to Tampa with her family as a senior in high school. After graduating from the University of South Florida and University of Southern California, she worked in finance for 10 years before seeing a need in the community she couldn’t resist.

While researching issues affecting abused women and children, Nascimento learned about the widespread trafficking of children in the United States, and in Florida in particular. As she started to build awareness about this tragedy, she struggled to find support initially because most people found it difficult to believe it was happening so close to home.

In 2010, Nascimento started a nonprofit called Redefining Refuge with the idea of changing this. What began as an awareness campaign eventually turned into the first safe house for child trafficking victims in Tampa Bay in 2013. The 10-acre facility in an undisclosed location provides a safe refuge for girls ages 12 to 17 with 24-hour staff and surveillance. The trafficking victims receive ongoing therapy, schooling and resources to get their lives back on track.

As executive director, Nascimento manages a budget of $400,000 and 12 full and part-time employees. The organization has served over 100 children since inception, each with a different path and individual goals.

Nascimento, who earned a master’s degree of Public Administration at the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s in Interdisciplinary Social Science at the University of South Florida, establishes a relationship with each child at the safe house, giving them personal attention to help further their goals and validate their self-worth.

“Knowing about this stuff and seeing how children are being affected, you care a lot about your clients, says Nascimento. “Your whole scope of everything just changes. Your life perspective is different.”

Redefining Refuge partners with local groups with a similar desire to raise awareness and help victims, such as Shared Hope International and Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.

India Witte, Executive Director, Women in Leadership and Philanthropy (WLP) and Senior Director of Foundation Board Relations, University of South Florida

Public education is in India Witte’s blood. From the start of her career working for Betty Castor, then Commissioner of Education for the State of Florida, she has always worked for public education in some form. She eventually moved to Tampa and started her career at the University of South Florida in the Alumni Association. Years and several jobs later she finds herself at USF again, serving the USF Foundation and Women in Leadership and Philanthropy (WLP).

In her dual role, Witte manages board relations for the Foundation, including board staffing and philanthropic management. She also heads up a volunteer leadership team and management for USF WLP, a 215-member program designed to engage leaders and philanthropists in making an impact for women in the USF system and the community at large.

“I have a true passion for and a belief in the transformation that educational opportunities can give all people,” says Witte. “I’ve had the honor of working with people who have worked really hard to earn their money and want to leverage it to invest and change their community.”

Witte, a graduate of Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in English, manages a department of three, $1.7 million in endowment assets and an operating budget of $650,000 per year.

She has seen a positive shift in the economic landscape for nonprofits in recent years, particularly for women. “Donors are feeling much more confident and comfortable in giving. Women are finding their voice in the philanthropic world,” says Witte.

In an effort to continue this positive shift, WLP is strengthening its relationships within all three USF system institutions, including Tampa, Sarasota/Manatee and St. Petersburg, with hopes of benefiting a broader geographic landscape and increasing impact overall. In doing so, Witte hopes to sustain the level of impact the organization has made since its founding in 2005.

“It’s incumbent on me as a leader to make sure that everything we do it sustainable for the future,” says Witte.

When members of Ad2 Tampa Bay’s Board of Directors sat down to listen to the finalists for this year’s pro bono campaign, they didn’t expect to have their minds blown. They heard from several worthy causes in the Tampa Bay area, all of whom had lofty missions and goals. But, one campaign in particular literally made their jaws drop.

The Junior League of Tampa wanted to launch an anti-human trafficking campaign on behalf of the Community Campaign Against Human Trafficking – Tampa Bay. To help make their case, they presented eye-opening statistics such as Florida ranking third in the nation for human trafficking, with Tampa Bay being a hot spot. The most staggering statistic was that the average child sex worker is just 12 years old.

“We had no idea that this issue was occurring right here in our own back yard. It hit us all very hard,” says Mandy Eyrich, public service director for Ad2 Tampa Bay, a nonprofit group of young advertising professionals in Tampa Bay. A “dream team” of sorts was put together to work on the campaign — Mandy Eyrich, Randi Sether, Kelsey Farnell and Seth Chavara — four young professionals working at various firms within the Tampa Bay region. The four also worked together several years ago at The Oracle as University of South Florida students.

The Abolish Movement

The team set out, first and foremost, to get the word out and open the eyes of the community in the same way their’s were opened. Once they started getting deeper into the issue, they realized that awareness would not be enough. They wanted to start a movement.

“Big things are done by people in masses coming together to make something happen,” says Eyrich.

The Abolish Movement officially launched in January to coincide with National Human Trafficking Awareness month. The team used guerrilla marketing strategies such as sticker bombing, where stickers were placed in areas likely to be seen by victims such as bathroom stalls of bars and strip clubs. They also created reverse graffiti, which involved stenciling the campaign’s logo into dirt on the street using a pressure washer.

In order to make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time, the team decided to unite multiple community organizations – churches, schools, businesses and government offices – with the same message.

The team of four spent many late nights working as volunteers on the campaign, but thinking about the victims kept them motivated.

“I’ve never felt this way about any campaign I’ve ever worked on,” says Eyrich. “The way the community came together with all of the different sponsors and organizations…the impact has been unreal.”

Measuring Success

The National Human Trafficking hotline has reported a nearly 40 percent increase in calls from the Tampa Bay area since the beginning of the campaign, which has already led to 24 new cases being reported compared to the previous year. Discussions are now taking place with state agencies about potential statewide adoption of the campaign. The team hopes to eventually take it to a national and even global scale.

The campaign has more than 100 community partners and sponsors in the Tampa Bay area, including Allegany Franciscan Ministries, Bright House, Creative Loafing, Hillsborough County Public Schools, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Metropolitan Ministries, USF Health and Homeland Security. Ad2 Tampa Bay also received national recognition as the winner of the American Advertising Federation’s National Ad 2 Public Service Competition.

“I pray and I hope that these victims start to see that their community is fighting for them and standing behind them,” says Eyrich. “They have a voice. They’re not just in the shadows anymore.”

Karina Becerra’s goal is two-fold: Alleviate poverty for America’s indigenous tribes while protecting the environment. Her startup company, Fly Tribes, which is scheduled to launch by June, will get her one step closer to that goal.

Becerra grew up in Colombia and moved to Miami at the age of 14 to pursue educational opportunities. She eventually obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies from Florida International University. From there, she worked for various government and nonprofit organizations to further environmentally focused initiatives. After having children, she started to wonder if entrepreneurship might be in her future.

She travels to Central and South America a few times per year to visit with indigenous tribes and is always amazed at the products they make. While there, she noticed that she has something in common with the women artisans she meets: The desire to find meaningful work that provides the flexibility to raise children while fulfilling professional aspirations.

Becerra always assumed the conservation world was different than the business world until she attended a United Nations event called Women Together. The event celebrated Fashion 4 Development, a social capitalism movement that works with the fashion and beauty industries to encourage the independence of communities across the world for sustainable economic growth. After learning about what companies such as Ten Thousand Villages and Toms One For One are doing, she thought of the idea to apply the same concepts to indigenous people.

The tipping point came when she learned about the University of South Florida’s Masters Degree programs in Entrepreneurship and Global Sustainability while reading Entrepreneur Magazine.

“I thought, this is perfect. This is where I belong,” says Becerra.

Conservation Meets Economic Opportunity

Described as Etsy for indigenous people, Fly Tribes is an online marketplace that provides a means for indigenous tribes to market and sell their products.

According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), indigenous people constitute about 5 percent of the world’s population yet account for around 15 percent of the world’s poor. There are more than 5,000 different groups living in more than 70 countries.

Mainstream solutions to poverty often come at the expense of the environment, forcing the tribes out of their homeland due to poaching, oil drilling and other side effects of industrialization.

“People think that environmental conservation means no economic growth,” says Becerra. “But, that’s so last century. We can alleviate poverty and protect the environment at the same time.”

Becerra’s premise is that these tribes already know a lot about managing the environment; they’ve been doing it for centuries through things like sustainable fishing and forestry practices. If private businesses and charitable organizations can empower them economically and keep them in their homes, they can continue to manage the world’s most precious resources.

Fly Tribes will offer three initial products: hand-beaded sunglasses, smudge sticks and bathing suits. Eventually it will carry a full line of products — everything from baby food to oil essences to textiles.

Initially Becerra will hold the inventory locally as well as manage distribution. In the long-term, she is working with the nonprofit organization The Environmental Heritage of the Caribbean Foundation to provide handheld devices to the tribes so they can communicate and manage distributions on their own. These devices can be powered from the energy used from cooking with a camp stove-type device called Bio Lite. The Foundation is also monitoring the effects of the concept on the health of the ecosystem to make sure Fly Tribes’ overall goal of protecting biodiversity is achievable.

The Foundation, whose Executive Director Cristal Ange is Becerra’s sister, is also monitoring the effects of the concept on the health of the ecosystem to make sure Fly Tribes’ overall goal of protecting biodiversity is achievable. They work with indigeneous artisans throughout the Colombian Caribbean on development projects with the mutual goal of protecting the local ecology through sustainable economic activities.

The tribes “have a whole lot to offer to the markets of the world if they can only reach those markets,” says Becerra. “By building them an online marketplace, we can help them become leaders in the global game.”

Becerra plans to graduate with a Masters Degree from the Patel College of Global Sustainability at USF in Spring 2015.

Fly Tribes is a charter company in the new business incubator at USF and is taking advantage of their office space and events.

A group of Tampa Bay area architects, designers, artists and creators want to stimulate your mind and body through interactive displays in downtown Tampa. Whoa. Say it’s so!

The Urban Conga in downtown Tampa isn’t talking about a typical public art display. The installations they spin out of their minds are interactive, attracting people into spaces and places where they otherwise wouldn’t think to visit.

One recent display, “Projecting Fun,” used a Kinect game, which responds to the body’s movements, projected onto a five-story abandoned wagon wheel building on Franklin Street. Imagine that. Your body dancing lights and sounds across the Tampa skyline. The event was so much fun, people are clamoring for more.

So The Urban Conga has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to see if they can generate enough financial support to do even more. To contribute, follow this link.

The Line Starts Here

The idea behind The Urban Conga was sparked by four students at the University of South Florida School of Architecture and Community Design who share a passion to make downtown Tampa, and ultimately other communities, more accessible and approachable.

“There’s so much there in Tampa” says Ryan Swanson, co-founder of The Urban Conga. “It’s not about building more, but showing people what’s already there and making them notice how awesome Tampa really is.”

Swanson moved to Tampa seven years ago to attend USF. While living in the neighborhoods around USF, he never discovered a reason to visit downtown Tampa. When he moved to the Tampa Heights neighborhood just north of downtown, he realized what a treasure the rest of Tampa really is. “I kind of fell in love with Tampa at that point.”

The group places the installations in unused and overlooked urban spaces, such as alleyways or parking lots, with the idea of enhancing the beauty of what others may consider ordinary — or even scary. The goal is for people to  stop and see what’s there, rather than just scurrying by.

“We all enjoy making things. We want to bring those things into downtown and share them with people, to help people have some fun while they’re there,” says Swanson.

Expanding Near And Far

Future ideas include “Color Code Bench,” a public bench that doubles as a musical instrument, allowing people to play notes with each bench pillar. Another project in the works is “The I.C.U. Project,” an interactive wall that tracks peoples movement as they react to it.

The group is open to ideas, collaborations and partnerships; anyone interested can join the conga line.

Although they’re starting with Tampa, the long-term goal is to expand the project to different cities across the U.S.

The faces and fallout of poverty exist in every community. Images of the people and places suffering the consequences can be seen on busy city streets and in lonely back yard alleys, in rural, suburban and urban neighborhoods.

But the residents of one North Tampa community are working together to stamp out poverty for good by creating the environment and culture that will help move their neighbors in need toward self-sufficiency.

The University Area Community Development Corporation (UACDC) aims to transform the once mostly transient area near USF (formerly known as “Suitcase City”) into a place where all people can thrive. Their most effective weapon? Partnerships.

“We’re stronger together. It sounds like a cliche, but it gets repeated so much because it’s true,” says Dan Jurman, the organization’s new executive director.

Having grown up in poverty, Jurman knows firsthand what the community is going through. “When I started working with elementary school students in summer day camp, we’d be outside doing crafts and would hear gunshots in the neighborhood. This is what these kids experience every day,” says Jurman, who was hired in January 2012. This experience, coupled with a love for anything involving children and an extensive background in nonprofits, puts Jurman in an ideal position to lead the ongoing transformation.

Creating A Safe Place

Located on 22nd street near Fletcher Avenue, the UACDC has been a conduit for community gathering since its formation in 1998. The nonprofit’s mission is redevelopment and programming to help families in the surrounding neighborhoods. Offerings include a 50,000-square-foot community center that provides critical services to thousands of residents, including literacy programs, affordable housing, recreation and workshops for youth in issues such as problem-solving and anger management.

The center is a lively, welcoming space where residents can feel safe to learn and play. On a given day, you might see youth playing basketball in the gym. Or, walk down the hallway of classrooms to find keyboard lessons, guitars, art projects or poetry class. “I couldn’t think of a better place to go,” says Alexis Santiago.

Santiago has been visiting the center since she moved to Tampa 10 years ago. With her father in and out of jail, her mother moved her and brother here to start a new life. After learning about the center through word of mouth, she immediately enrolled in a poetry class, which helped her express herself and cope with hardships.

“Just the fact that they were there for support made you want to join different programs and be there all the time,” says Santiago.

The program that makes the most difference in her life, she says, is the Teen Empowerment Council, which aims to get youth off the streets and active in the community. The Council meets weekly and participates in projects such as Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful.

“The council helped me grow as an individual,” says Santiago. “It was an overall good experience; I couldn’t be more happy.”

It Takes A Village Plus Time

The driving force behind UACDC’s success, and what will take them to the next level in the near future, is partnerships. Eight different organizations joined together to make the community center come to fruition in 2000. The group brought Muller Elementary, a nationally recognized magnet school, to the area along with Bowers Whitley Career Center High School, which now has one of the highest graduation rates in Hillsborough County. The collaboration with brought health and other offices right down the street, creating accessible community space that provides services where they are needed most.

“We’ve got well over 20 partnerships that aren’t just lip service,” says Jurman. “That’s about to get kicked into high gear.”

The “high gear” Jurman speaks of is a new model for nonprofits called the Partners Committee. In what could be described as the “next evolution” for nonprofits, the goal is to change the way services are delivered, where organizations work in tandem to make sure people are assisted through every aspect of life. Take, for example, a child diagnosed with asthma. Doctors can provide treatment through medicine and education, but if the child goes home to a house with mold in it, the problem will perpetuate. Through a collaborative effort, free legal services are provided to the family to require their landlord to remove the mold.

Pastor Don Grantham from University Baptist Church on 22nd Street, a strong supporter and volunteer for UACDC for more than 20 years, will chair the Partners Committee. He realized the value of partnerships years ago, while trying to improve the safety of the intersection surrounding the church. While navigating the political system, he learned that if redevelopment is going to take place in the community, and if the county is going to support it, the residents need to speak up. In a sense, the discovery reflects the adage, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

“From that time on I appreciated the value in partnering with others of like-mindedness,” says Grantham. “Collectively we can do more than we can do individually.”

Grantham plans to make sure there are businesses that can support the workforce needs in the area. “In an ideal world, there should be enough work in our community so that people will want jobs,” says Grantham. He wants to develop a coalition of neighborhood landlords that will improve living conditions. He also envisions a partnership of local residents who will speak up for their needs.

Santiago, now 20, is now studying at Hillsborough Community College and ultimately wants to become a psychologist so she can help people in the same way she was helped. She offers advice for others in her situation: “Don’t give up. There are people out there who can help you do what you want to do. You’ll make it through.”

Jurman couldn’t agree more. “Positive activity is just as contagious and can build just as much momentum that poverty does in the other direction,” he says. The community will be the ones who ultimately create the transformation. UACDC provides them with the tools and motivation they need to do it.

One sexual assault is too many. One student can make a difference. Tampa Bay residents Kelly Addington and Becca Tieder have set out to bring this message to the masses, changing the culture of sexual violence in our society.

The two have been best friends for 23 years, going through high school, college, work and other life changes together. In college they were very involved on campus, took basic safety education and thought they did everything right. Their world literally stopped when Addington was the victim of a sexual assault.

They were surprised at how difficult it was to find resources in a crisis situation. It was that experience that led them to dedicate their lives to changing the way our culture views sexual violence.

“Once the recovery process began, we realized we had a responsibility to our healing — and to our community — to do something about it,” says Tieder.

In 2010 they formed a nonprofit organization called One Student. They travel to college campuses across the U.S. to educate students about sexual assault. The message is not one of sadness and gloom, but rather of empowerment, motivation and support. They address boundaries, choices and most of all respect. Addington’s calm, realistic demeanor mixed with Tieder’s natural sense of humor makes for a creative combination that connects with the audience and makes what is usually a touchy subject all of the sudden approachable.

They’ve reached more than half a million students since they began, and they don’t plan to stop any time soon.

“When we talk about it, that’s when we can begin to change the culture,” says Addington.

The team uses creative mediums such as videos, posters and real testimonies from survivors in their educational campaigns. One such medium is a documentary called “You are the One,” which is set to premier September 22 at the Reeves Theater inside the Vaughn Center at the University of Tampa.

The Film Maker

Local film editor and producer Barbara Rosenthal approached Tieder and Addington in the spring of 2011 with the idea of turning their story into a film. At first they were skeptical, knowing they didn’t have the money for funding. But, Rosenthal convinced them to go for it and ended up finding a grant from the Waterfield Foundation, as well as private donors to fund the piece.

A survivor of sexual assault herself, Rosenthal of Buzz Media felt close to the issues Tieder and Addington speak about and was drawn to the way they handle things with grace, humor and passion.

“I’m just blown away by what they do and how they do it,” says Rosenthal. Working on the film also helped her accept her own experience as a survivor.

Rosenthal has been living in the Tampa area since 1991 and started producing films locally in 1996. She made her first film at the age of seven, about how the Arabs stole Hannakuh (a pun on How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Her editing career began at Edit Suites in Tampa, where several former employees have gone on to larger film careers. To film the piece, a camera crew followed Tieder and Addington as they traveled. They also took their own camera to add some raw experience.

“The film is emotional at times, but there’s some really great elements of humor,” says Rosenthal, adding that she stays away from things that are too heavy handed in her films. “Life is like that — it’s full of good and bad things, but that’s what makes it real.”

Changing The World By Sharing Stories

Rosenthal’s goal in producing the documentary is, simply put, to change the world. She wants people to understand that this is a real issue. “If we want to build a better world, better culture, stronger culture, we have to stop hurting each other,” says Rosenthal.  Working on the documentary was “very humbling, surreal, strange and comfortable all at once,” says Addington.

The film includes testimonies of survivors and their loved ones. Stories of sharing and courage. Victims who want their voices to be heard. Like Sabrina, who didn’t want what happened to her to define her. “If I stop living my life, then they get the best of me,” Sabrina says in the film.

“The reason I’m able to tell my story over and over again is because I know it’s not just my story,” says Addington.

It’s a story Tieder and Addington hope no one else will ever have to tell.