Lutheran Services Florida, Inc.

Lutheran Services Florida, Inc. is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization based in Tampa, Florida that operates as a prime recipient of federal grants for youth shelter, family services, early childhood education, refugee resettlement, and behavioral health programs, with 75% of its recent federal footprint routed through sub-award relationships with state agencies and national nonprofits.

The organization's federal grant portfolio spans multiple Department of Health and Human Services administrations. As a prime recipient, Lutheran Services Florida holds cooperative agreements and project grants from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACF), the Office of Head Start, and the SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. A $5.4 million cooperative agreement awarded April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2029 (CFDA 93.566) funds a federally operated residential shelter program providing temporary care, housing, medical services, education, mental health support, and case management for unaccompanied alien children, with services including identification and vetting of suitable sponsors and post-placement case management. A $350,000 project grant from ACF's Basic Center Program effective September 30, 2025 through September 29, 2028 (CFDA 93.623) supports the Hope House Youth Shelter, delivering emergency shelter and crisis intervention services to runaway and homeless youth under 18, with up to 21 days of temporary shelter plus food, clothing, counseling, health care referrals, and aftercare assistance. Lutheran Services Florida also holds multiple Head Start and Early Head Start project grants awarded by the Office of Head Start (CFDA 93.600), including a $712,269 award from June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2026, supporting early childhood education and family services for low-income pregnant women, infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. Additional prime grants include a project award from SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services for the LSF Zero Suicide Project (September 30, 2023 through September 29, 2028), scaling a suicide care management system across a network of 17 nonprofit mental health providers in Duval County with emphasis on Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ, and veteran populations, and a SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment grant supporting the River Oak Center Recovery School (June 30, 2023 through June 29, 2028), a recovery high school serving 450 youth ages 14–19 with serious emotional or substance use disorders in Duval County, a designated High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

Customer concentration runs heavily to HHS administrations. The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families accounts for 61 awards across prime and sub positions; SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment together account for 55 awards. These three entities represent the vast majority of the organization's federal footprint. Five additional customer agencies include the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the University of South Florida (as a pass-through for sub-awards), the Florida Department of Health, and the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The organization's sub-award activity dominates its federal portfolio. Of 177 total awards in the source data, 132 (75%) are sub-awards flowing through prime grantees including Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Inc. (which administers federal refugee resettlement and safe release support programs), the Florida Department of Children and Families (behavioral health managing entity and mental health and substance abuse services contracts), the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (trafficking victim assistance programs under OTIP), the University of South Florida (skills-based healthy marriage and relationship education for child welfare-involved families), and the Florida Department of Health (child care food program meal service). This sub-award structure signals that Lutheran Services Florida operates primarily as a regional service delivery arm embedded in larger federal grant networks rather than as an independent prime contractor or grant recipient pursuing full-and-open federal opportunities.

Activity has moderated in recent years. The organization recorded 55 awards in 2022, followed by 21 in 2023, 20 in 2024, and 23 in 2025, reflecting a shift from rapid expansion toward a more stable operational posture. Nine awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months (through July 2027) face recompete risk. Total dollars obligated across all 177 awards in the source data reach $2.18 billion, with the bulk flowing through HHS grant programs rather than federal contracts. The organization serves 14 distinct federal customer agencies, though concentration within HHS administrations means competitive exposure is primarily to other nonprofit providers of youth shelter, family services, refugee resettlement, and behavioral health programming in Florida and nationally.