Providing a boost for The Giving Challenge

This year, there are 24 hours of opportunity for area nonprofits with profiles on The Giving Partner to raise funds benefiting their missions. The chance for our generous community to donate early and often begins May 6 at noon until May 7 at noon.

The Patterson Foundation (TPF) is excited to once again lend its financial and social media support to the online giving effort as local nonprofit organizations devise strategies to leverage their own social media channels and build relationships with businesses and other nonprofits.

For the third year in a row, TPF’s financial support was calculated by doubling the amount of money donated by other foundations in support of The Giving Challenge.  Foundations providing support included the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, the Charlotte Community Foundation, the Manatee Community Foundation, the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The result from this combined effort will be $225,000 for prizes, and $450,000 in matches for new and increased donations made to nonprofits during the challenge.

Since inception, TPF has supported The Giving Challenge because it is uniquely positioned to inspire philanthropy, raise unrestricted funds for local nonprofit organizations, and leverage technology.  With its approach of only accepting funds online, The Giving Challenge encourages a different type of person to become a philanthropist by creating the opportunity to easily donate. These donors are not necessarily the same individuals who are willing to write a check and mail it in an envelope to an organization. By encouraging online donations, there is the recognition that smaller donations are important and do make a difference.

As participating organizations have gotten more familiar with the tools available to promote themselves, they have unleashed the power of social media to share their stories to create awareness and to engage new and current donors.  This ability extends beyond The Giving Challenge and provides a year-round opportunity for maintaining visibility in the community.

TPF is very interested in watching this year’s event unfold as we learn about the new donors, observe how social media is employed and watch the leaderboard rise.