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Can Giving Days help you raise more money?

Posted June 4, 2014 by Hunter Williams
Can 24-hour Giving Days help you raise more money for your nonprofit? If you’re participating in Seattle’s GiveBIG annual event, they can!
 
To the many nonprofits in the Seattle area who’ve participated in the now annual matching donation fest known as GiveBIG, you know the benefits of being part of a Giving Day event. If you’re outside this region, we hope this article will inspire you to find a 24-hour Giving Day event in your area.
Sponsored by The Seattle Foundation, GiveBIG, which usually occurs on a day in May on the Seattle Foundation website, collects a pool of matching funds (the “stretch pool”) to augment any contributions made by individuals to participating organizations. In 2013, the stretch pool was $800,000 and was given to nonprofits based on their ratio of total donations received, with a cap of $25,000 on any single donation to help smaller organizations.
Nonprofits are encouraged to solicit donations directly, steering donors to The Seattle Foundation website so the nonprofit can benefit from the stretch pool.
The Seattle Foundation has put together these terrific resources for participating nonprofits:
Once you’ve received the donations, be sure to enter them into your donor managment system so you can properly thank donors for their participation.
A couple of quick tips about entering these gifts:
  • Unlike in prior years, donations made through The Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG site will be made directly by the donor to the receiving nonprofit. When you enter the gifts, enter them as donations directly from the donor, not from the Seattle Foundation. 
  • Click ‘n Pledge, the online payment solution used by The Seattle Foundation for all of the GiveBIG giving, will automatically send an email confirmation with tax information, so there’s no need to send a tax receipt; however, you are encouraged to send a thank you from your organization.
  • Donors’ credit card statements will display the receiving organization’s name, so there shouldn’t be any confusion for donors about who the money went to. 
  • Enter matching gifts from The Seattle Foundation, giving a soft credit to the donor. 
 

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