About
A graduate of New York University where he completed both his B.A. (Organizational Behavior and Communications) and M.S. (Fundraising and Grant Making), Craig Pinto has over 10 years of fundraising and event experience in the nonprofit sector. While at NYU he was given the prestigious NYU Bart Lawson Award for Public Service for his work and dedication to the nonprofit community. More recently, he was named "Best Philanthropist" by Bethpage Federal Credit Union Best of Long Island for 2020.
Prior to NYU, he spent two years as an Arena Football kicker and went on to set four football-related Guinness World Records, all of them done while raising money for different nonprofit organizations. After this, in 2010, Craig started his own nonprofit organization, Kicking 4 Celiac Foundation, which he developed and ran for over five years and expanded this grass-roots organization to offer various health and educational programs at different schools in over 20 states across the country. In this time, he also developed the first-ever scholarship given to college bound students to help them with dining costs associated to living with celiac disease.
Along with his work in the celiac disease community, he has worked with various nonprofit organizations with focus areas in child care, mental health, education, and men's health among others. He has overseen successful growth in both fundraising and participation in special events, capital campaigns, strategic planning, and annual appeals. His latest oversight, "The Water Bottle Project", has utilized social media platforms to raise money and successfully deliver over 100,000 bottles of clean water to families in Flint, MI, Houston, TX, and the Bahamas, during times of crisis. In 2019 he created an International Student scholarship for Mineola High School students, which help to cover the costs of college materials for immigrant students or students whose parents have moved from another country.
In 2017, he was inducted into the Jericho High School Alumni Hall of Fame. Prior to that, he was named the "Portuguese-American Young Man of the Year" in 2014. In 2013, he was inducted into the American Football News Hall of Fame, recognized for his football achievements and philanthropy through the sport. That same year he was also selected by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition to receive their Community Leadership Award and given the "Foggy Award" for Nonprofit Leader of the Year.
He has appeared as a guest on various television programs on ABC, TLC, NatGeo, and ESPN. In print, he has been featured in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Books for Better Living, Newsday, as well as Gluten-Free Living magazine. On radio, Craig has been a repeat guest on SiriusXM radio, ESPN Radio, and most recently on Power 105, to discuss philanthropy, nonprofit development, and the importance of giving back.
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