HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-06-15 Give Big Public Comment The Chronicle of Philanthropy
APRIL 06, 2015
Give Local America Aims to Multiply Success of Community Giving Days
By Eden Stiffman
In 2014, Winters Friends of the Library was struggling to raise the money it needed to keep the doors open at
the library it supports in Winters, a rural California town of 6,998 residents.
So when volunteers in Winters heard about the Sacramento area's Big Day of Giving on May 6, they decided to
go all in. In 24 hours, they were able to raise about three quarters of the library organization's annual $34,000
budget.
"The Big Day of Giving was a godsend," says Sally Brown, a member of the library group board who
coordinates the giving day effort.
Sacramento's Big Day of Giving was part of the first national Give Local America event, in which community
funds and United Ways nationwide joined forces to call attention to local groups and build excitement about
giving online.
Give Local America raised a total of$53 million during last year's day of giving, and organizers hope to raise at
least$10 million more in the next event, on May 5.
To spur donations, local United Ways and community foundations offer incentives, such as matching money
for the donations that groups raise on the day of the event or prizes for groups that do the best in attracting
new donors or creatively marketing their missions.
Spurring Grassroots Giving
The idea for Give Local America came from Kimbia, a software company that helps community funds and
others set up online fundraising efforts. Many of the community funds who use its software had held
successful single-day efforts to rally support for local charities.
"We thought, 'What if we could do this on a national level?'" says Lori Finch, Kimbia's vice president of
community foundations. "What if you could do these local events but come together on one day and really
invite people to give local?"
Last year's event not only raised significant dollars but also attracted 300,000 donors, and Kimbia says that at
least a quarter of them had not previously supported the charities they contributed money to last May. The
day's return over all was stronger than another prominent national effort, Giving Tuesday, which last year
brought in $46 million for nonprofits nationwide on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, according to Indiana
University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Kimbia also gets a financial benefit from the Give Local America event. Many of the community funds and
United Ways that participate buy a system that collects online donations and offers templates on how to do
social media and public relations.
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Prices ranges from $2,500 to $15,000, based on the size of an organization and the scope of the services it
purchases. About 5 percent of donations go to credit-card processing fees and additional charges by Kimbia
for the technology.
Building on a Growing Trend
Momentum for giving days has been growing in recent years.
Both the Seattle Foundation and the Pittsburgh Foundation, which brought in the most money during last
year's event — $12.8 million and $5.7 million, respectively — held giving days for several years on their own
and then joined last year's nationwide effort.
Bridget Wilkinson, executive director of the Bozeman Area Community Foundation in Montana, has spent a
year and a half preparing for Give Big Gallatin Valley, the area's first Giving Day.
When she was hired as the foundation's first full-time staff member, she conducted research about what was
and wasn't working at community foundations.
"It was very clear that community foundations all over the country were really blazing a trail in these giving
days," she says. "They were really effective at bringing together nonprofit sectors in local communities to raise
important unrestricted funds but also to provide this safe space for nonprofits to view themselves as a
collective sector, even if it's just for one day."
Marketing Support
Before giving days, most foundations hold training sessions to make sure nonprofits are prepared not just to
manage the one-day event but also to improve their marketing and fundraising skills.
Priscilla Enriquez, chief giving officer at the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, said her organization
knew that groups like the Winters library fundraising unit needed a hand.
"We had nonprofits of wide-ranging sizes participating, from really small and nascent to large institutions. We
knew that all of them needed help with social media, in marketing and communications, and essentially telling
their story," Ms. Enriquez says. "We really focused on storytelling and using social media to get the word out
— and it worked."
Last year the foundation exceeded its$1-million goal by 10 a.m.This year it hopes that more than 500 local
nonprofits will collectively raise at least $5 million.
The foundation has adjusted its approach based on what it learned last year. Instead of the one-day "boot
camp" it offered last year,the foundation hosted eight sessions earlier this year focusing on social media,
board involvement, donor engagement, and other topics.
Mixed Success
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Though most of the Give Local America events are organized by community foundations and United Ways,
some charities go it on their own, especially if they operate in regions where nobody is sponsoring a giving
day.
About 1,000 nonprofits registered last year to run campaigns on their own, and this year's participants are still
being tallied.
"We wanted to open this up and allow organizations to participate where we may not have a local sponsor,"
Ms. Finch says. "We think if we can create a crowd, we can create some excitement for their community and
sort of bubble that up."
But that didn't work for every participant.
Keith Ammann, vice president of the Chicago Chess Center, a nonprofit that wants to offer players a place to
train and compete, says his organization didn't receive a single new gift. The group's two donations came from
Mr. Ammann and a board member.
"We received no helpful information about how the day was supposed to work or how we were supposed to
market ourselves on that day," he wrote in an email. "Was the point of the day to help us multiply our reach?
It didn't."
To counter such problems, Give Local America offers online training for nonprofits on how to use social media
and take advantage of a daylong event.This year it added a webinar to help nonprofits through a partnership
with TechSoup.
Building Community
Give Local America's daylong event offers many groups a way to demonstrate their value and bring supporters
together in person
Winters Friends of the Library will host a midnight pajama party to encourage donors to give early and get to
know one another.
The Sacramento Region Community Foundation is hosting a "half-time celebration" at a local park, where
nonprofits will set up booths.
In Bozeman, local businesses will offer free drinks and other incentives to people who come in to make a
donation on an iPad. The campaign will wrap up with an evening event at the historic Baxter Hotel in the city's
downtown.
Ms. Wilkinson says she hopes the day will bring local nonprofits together and educate others about why such
organizations are crucial to the city's success.
"What was primarily an online event is really nationwide becoming a community celebration of giving," she
says.
Send an e-mail to Eden Stiffman.
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