The Well Incorporated
Needs met, bridges built, a city made whole
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Well is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation that serves those from marginalized communities: local working poor, people who are homeless and precariously houses, those who are isolated, are food insecure, have mental health and/or substance use problems, and people with disabilities. All of The Well’s activities serve the vision of creating opportunities for folks from different demographic backgrounds to build relationships based on mutual respect and the inherent and God-given dignity of every human being. While it is a common dream to make poverty history, it is an uncommon dream to make poverty personal and it is in personal relationships that this move can be made for each individual involved.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
WellBuilt Bikes LLC
A social enterprise bike shop selling refurbished bikes at affordable prices and then investing the sales revenue into an Earn-A-Bike program so that folks with little to no money can also own a form of reliable transportation and have all the access and benefits that come from riding bikes
WellFed Community
WellFed Community is a service provider for all things food and was founded on the premise that there is a gap in food education in the United States across socioeconomic classes. In an effort to #MakeFoodMakeSense and challenge the misconception that eating healthy is hard or costly, WellFed create collaborative, engaging programs that foster a positive relationship with food and feed one's mind, body, and soul. WellFed Community was created for residents of the Tampa Bay Area in an effort to build on existing services and community food system relationships. However, we are working to create a model that can be translated to any community.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Pounds of produce distributed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Homeless people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total value of bicycle services provided in sliding scale repairs, facilitated workshops, weekly group rides
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Homeless people
Related Program
WellBuilt Bikes LLC
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The Well began out of our CEO Jon Dengler’s home over two decades ago when he and his friends began opening his doors to neighbors in need of food, clothing, and shelter. This grew into an informal drop-in center that serviced hundreds of people each day. Fast forwarding to 2014, they formally incorporated a nonprofit organization and began actively raising money to support their cause and decentralizing the organization. Today the Well’s Ecosystem consists of: Works of Mercy which provides immediate relief through our mobile Free Market food distribution, & a subsidized housing initiative; WellBuilt Bikes, a social enterprise bike shop that operates on a sliding scale cost model and provides bikes to those in need in return for “sweat equity” ;WellFed Community, a food education service provider, and network of community gardens; Humanize, a healthcare app in development that aims at facilitating caregivers efforts; and The Incubator, a social enterprise incubator that identifies & provides services to entrepreneurs like-minded in mission.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The Well uses an innovative and well-supported strengths-based strategy that both reduces the stigma associated with material poverty and homelessness and empowers those with these experiences through inclusivity and the recognition that all members of a community are valued and needed to ensure its health and vitality. The real innovation of The Well is the relational approach underlying all that we do. It is true that all of The Well’s programs are really just opportunities to build relationships. The simplicity of this posture has meant dignifying services and a listening and learning posture toward communities within which we work. Each program decision can be traced back to a conversation with a neighbor in need:
1. Conscious Party: open mic and pot luck dinner that facilitates relational connections and open sharing. It is set as a common table where many of the relationships started at other outreaches find a place to be together.
2. The Good Sam: Tampa’s largest boarding house. For some residents it is their first step off the streets and for others it is their last stop before homelessness. We want to know and walk with our neighbors in either situation and so partner with Metropolitan Ministries to serve free community dinners.
3. WellBuilt Bikes sells refurbished bikes and invests the revenue into our Earn-A-Bike program where those without money can volunteer their time in exchange for a bike.
4. Free Market @ Waters: food pantry where guests have the freedom to shop and choose the items they want.
5. Kinship Mobile Free Market: a mobile version that partners with ministries across Tampa to serve low income neighborhoods by connecting partner churches/volunteer teams to communities experiencing food insecurity. These community connections plant seeds of relationships, cross-cultural connections, and interpersonal healing/growth. Each mobile team goes to the same neighborhood once per month.
6. The Well House provides housing to formerly homeless men.
A good example of the strength-based strategy is The Wells' WellBuilt Bikes, which uses a social entrepreneurial model that involves the whole community in addressing the social exclusion of its marginalized members. WellBuilt works with organizations across the city and involves people of all socio-economic groups in finding, refurbishing, and selling bicycles that in turn help to fund its socially inclusive programs. Many who build their own bicycles with tools and instructions available in the shop return to coach others. In time the shop has become almost completely run by program participants who had originally come in to get a bicycle for themselves and in time took ownership of the work and the shop itself.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The Well’s team has been working to address the needs of the materially poor in Tampa for over 15 years and in that time has demonstrated a commitment to the people they serve, a capacity for developing programs that facilitate healthy growth and relationships, and a network of partnerships and supports who give, serve, and advise as needed. Some of these partnerships include: Underground Network, St Paul & Faith Lutheran Churches, Waters Avenue Church, Watermark Church, Timothy Initiative, The Good Samaritan Inn, Feeding Tampa Bay, Metropolitan Ministries, University Area Community Development Corporation, Eckerd Connects, Pepin Academies, and Mission Increase.
The CEO, together with staff holding key credentials, are responsible for implementing operational processes that consistently meet criteria for clinical best practice and that comply with all local, state, and federal statutes. CEO and co-founder Jon Dengler benefits from the long-term mentorship of several more experienced executives, and was recently selected by the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay to participate in the 2020 cohort of their CEO Leadership Program. In 2016, the Board of Directors together with the CEO collaborated on and completed the Mission Increase Foundation’s program on effective governance: Boards That Love, Lead, and Learn. Jon has received the 2018 University Area Community Impact Award, the 2018 Top 100 Visionary Leaders Award, the 2013 Innovation in Mission Award, and the 2013 Compassion + Action Gideon Award for his work. He also holds several professional certificates including Wraparound 101 (Florida Department of Children and Families), Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation (University of South Florida), and Many Faces of Human Trafficking (Florida Regional Community Policing Institute).
What is arguably most important about The Well is the organization's commitment to embodying the values they espouse. Organizations staff are not just calling others to take personal responsibility for the condition of their own city, they are also pouring themselves out to leverage every resource available to do just that themselves. The Well is, if nothing else, a demonstration of concrete values like neighborliness, hospitality, industriousness, and generosity. Their work embodies their values and message.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since 2004, The Well has been working to significantly improve community hunger/food insecurity in Tampa-Hillsborough County neighborhoods directly through its weekly community dinners and Free Market, along with the growing number of Kinship Mobile Markets and community gardens. Since 2013 The Well has distributed 262,000 pounds of food and provided 28,500 meals.
The Well has also significantly impacted food insecurity indirectly through access to transportation and gainful employment. The need for reliable transportation is a major obstacle when it comes to food security, both financially in the ability to find employment to purchase food and logistically in the ability to access food when living in a food desert. Bicycles offer a solution to both of these challenges. Since 2017, 1,200 people have attained reliable transportation through The Well’s WellBuilt Bikes Earn-A-Bike program. Another indirect impact on food insecurity has been The Well’s ability to offer workforce development internships to many clients of partnering agencies. Last year alone The Well was able to facilitate 20 internships to participants with Pepin Transitional and Eckerd Connects Pathways to Employment. Pepin Transitional is a great example of a partnership that is amplifying The Well’s impact as Pepin Transitional is a comprehensive individualized program of vocationally based training in conjunction with life and job readiness courses, designed for young adults ages 18 to 22 who have an identified learning or learning-related disability.
The Well is also pursuing partnerships that are furthering the impact of it’s programs and services. One solid example is it’s work with Success for Kids & Families (S4KF), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization offering a comprehensive array of services to individuals and families struggling with mental health, behavioral and/or substance abuse challenges, and pre and post-natal support services to new and expectant mothers in Hillsborough County. Partnerships like this have made it possible for The Well to focus efforts on building relationships with the individuals being served and working to meet some of their most basic needs like food and transportation while partner organizations like S4KF address many of the deeper traumas and familial issues that these neighbors are facing.
The Well is working to expand its WellBuilt Earn A Bike program to serve more people for longer periods of engagement and to increase the number of Kinship Mobile Markets to serve a wider range of neighborhoods and citizens experiencing food insecurity.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time, literacy
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
The Well Incorporated
Board of directorsas of 03/14/2023
Rose Winn
Ben Robbins
Software Success Services
Tony Winn
Tahjah Kittling
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as: