The Glazer family is pumping new money into its small-business relief effort, giving Tampa Bay shops still rebuilding from last year’s hurricanes a longer runway to recover. The fresh pledge keeps the Glazer Family Small Business Fund alive through 2026 and means more one-time checks for locally owned stores, restaurants, and service companies. A network of chamber partners across the region will continue screening applicants and handing out grants.
As reported by Tampa Bay Business Journal, the Glazers have committed additional dollars to keep the program going. According to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the fund has already delivered more than $1.2 million to nearly 300 local businesses and is now set to continue through 2026, with individual awards of up to $5,000.
How grants reach local businesses
The money flows through eight participating chambers, including the Tampa Bay Chamber, South Tampa Chamber and the St. Petersburg Chamber, which review applications and cut checks locally. Those chambers then coordinate with nonprofit affiliates to handle eligibility rules and move the funds to qualifying firms on the ground, according to the Tampa Bay Chamber.
New rounds add cash as recovery drags on
The Glazer Family Foundation opened a third round of awards in mid-2025, adding roughly $400,000 in fresh support. The program started with about $2 million in family donations in late 2024, and organizers say these added rounds are meant to keep quick, flexible capital flowing to small businesses while the slower grind of long-term recovery continues, according to Pulse of Manatee.
“What makes Tampa Bay and our entire region so special is our resiliency and ability to come together during trying times such as these,” Darcie Glazer Kassewitz said in the team’s original announcement, per the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Team leaders frame the grants as a supplement to government aid, designed to help owners cover immediate operating costs while they wait out insurance claims and reconstruction work.
How to apply
Local chambers are in charge of the application windows and will publish eligibility details on their own sites, so businesses are urged to check directly with their chamber partners for timelines and paperwork. As noted by Tampa Bay Business Journal, some past grant recipients even got a victory lap, recognized on the field at a Buccaneers preseason game last August in a moment captured by photographer Kyle Zedaker.
The checks might look modest next to big insurance payouts, but chamber officials say they can be the difference between reopening and shutting down when owners need cash fast for repairs and replacement inventory. The Tampa Bay Chamber has pointed out that Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024 left a long trail of damage and ongoing recovery headaches for small firms, which is exactly the gap the Glazer family set out to fill and continues to target with the fund’s expansion.
