Southwest Washington’s 24-hour online giving marathon set for Sept. 20
VANCOUVER — The Community Foundation for Southwest Washington has scheduled its fifth-annual day of online fundraising for Thu., Sept. 20. The event, called Give More 24!, runs from midnight to midnight and encourages local residents to “empower in numbers” by donating to local causes on the same day.
Those who wish to give during the 24-hour event should visit givemore24.org. Here, donors can search more than 150 participating organizations and filter by cause area or location to help identify nonprofits they would like to support. Cause categories include interests such as animal welfare, arts and culture, education, environment, health, housing, hunger, religion, social justice and veterans.
Jennifer Rhoads, president of the Community Foundation, said “Give More 24! empowers people to choose which causes matter most to them, which in turn empowers nonprofits to make more positive impacts in our community.”
As the event’s name implies, gifts can actually give more during this 24-hour period. This multiplication is made possible thanks to hundreds of thousands of dollars in matching funds that benefit particular nonprofits’ fundraising efforts through one-to-one matches. The only requirement is that contributions must be made through givemore24.org, the Give More 24! website, in order to benefit from eligible match dollars.
Additionally, $20,000 in nonprofit prizes will be up for grabs. Each of the prizes will be available during certain time periods throughout the day, and are awarded based on set goals or random drawings. More specific information about prizes and criteria can be found on the website.
Give More 24! was created by the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington as a local “giving holiday” that brings attention to the charitable needs of our region and the nonprofits addressing them. In that spirit, every gift given during this event will stay local, because each of the participating nonprofits serves Clark, Cowlitz or Skamania Counties. Give More 24! is a simple and rewarding way for residents to give. Rhoads said that the event is growing community philanthropy, because many donors give multiple gifts and some discover new nonprofits.
This year, the online event aims to raise $1.2 million for local causes in 24 hours and engage more than 4,000 donors. Last year, the event exceeded its $1 million goal thanks to the contributions of 3,422 donors — enough to fill 86 city buses. Donors didn’t just come from southwest Washington either. Gifts came from 40 states and as far away as Kigali, Rwanda.
To take part in this online giving marathon, visit the website on Sept. 20. Here, supporters can make charitable gifts to their favorite nonprofits via the website’s secure donation form. All the donations will be tallied in real time so that everyone can watch the dollars add up and cheer on their favorite cause. The website also allows users to tap into their social networks by allowing donors to post messages in support of their chosen charities, which can rally friends and family to pitch in and give back as well. This year, Give More 24! also features a peer-to-peer fundraising feature, which allows individual supporters to lead a personal fundraising campaign on behalf of a participating nonprofit.
“This event is all about what inspires each of us to give and how that personal story can spark others to give,” Rhoads said. “We know that human connection amplifies philanthropy, which is why we’ve given our donors more power to participate in the process.”
This event would not be possible without the support of a generous group of business sponsors that are listed online.
