More than 300,000 Donors Give Over $50 Million to 7,000 Nonprofits, Making May 6’s “Give Local America” the Largest, Single-Day Charitable Crowdfunding Event Ever
Austin, Texas (PRWEB) May 09, 2014 -- One hundred and twenty U.S. communities, hundreds of community and national sponsors and thousands of nonprofits activated more than 300,000 donors and raised over $50 million on May 6, 2014 for 7,000 worthy nonprofits. The Give Local America campaign generated tremendous excitement as everyone could see national totals growing in real-time on the event’s website. As anticipated, this was the largest, one-day, charitable, online crowdfunding event to date.
Give Local America was organized by Kimbia, the leading provider of technology for increasingly popular online giving days. It was designed to: 1) shine a light on the key role community foundations play in philanthropy, most notably identifying nonprofits that have the greatest impact in their local communities so donors can give with confidence; and 2) reignite the spirit of local philanthropy at the grassroots level at a time that falls outside of the normal giving cycle while building momentum for giving throughout the year.
Donations peaked at 34 transactions/donations per second at 1:53 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and more than 305,000 donations were processed during the campaign. Prior to the event, community foundations and nonprofits had collectively amassed $6 million in matching funds. The average gift amount was $112.92 as a record number of people, including many new donors, supported the hometown charities that make a profound difference in their communities.
The event also introduced many participating nonprofits to the benefits of online donation technology, which can significantly increase fundraising and donor acquisition across all demographic groups. These organizations now have an opportunity to engage these new donors (and ultimately the donor’s network) on a regular basis, converting them to monthly giving and bequests.
"We are thrilled to have been able to align our 3rd annual Giving Partner Challenge with Give Local America,” said Roxie Jerde, CEO, Community Foundation of Sarasota County. “Our community has always been incredibly generous, enabling us to support over 400 nonprofits by providing them with a simple and easy way to recruit new and engage existing donors. Now we're proud to be part of an even bigger community -- America.”
When asked what made the event so successful, Dan Gillett, CEO, Kimbia said, “The most critical success factor was the excitement and grassroots execution of community foundations before and during the event, including their use of social media to promote this national crowdfunding event. Our highly scalable platform enabled communities to convert the excitement they generated into a record-breaking number of donations by allowing donors to donate quickly and easily and providing a real-time view to results. Finally, our promotional partner Network for Good enabled us to extend this opportunity to a much larger audience of nonprofits in major markets.”
Another key success factor of these online events is the competitive spirit they tap. The top three community foundations, based on funds, raised were:
• Community Foundation of Sarasota County
• Sacramento Region Community Foundation
• Coastal Community Foundation
The top nonprofit in each of the top three categories were:
• Human Services -- Holy Angels of North Carolina
• Arts & Culture – Charleston Symphony Orchestra
• Education -- Sci-Port: Louisiana's Science Center
Kimbia enabled community foundations and nonprofits to spend more time doing what they do best -- engaging their supporters -- by providing giving day technology and training. This included a uniquely branded giving day website for each community plus donation forms that could also be embedded on partners’ and supporters’ websites in under two minutes and training on social media promotion, capacity building, and giving day communication toolkits.
About Kimbia
Kimbia's flexible, best-of-breed, Omni-Channel Fundraising™ platform enables an organization to create a deeper donor relationship by leveraging the strengths of each channel and putting donors at the center of all development activities. Ultimately this approach results in greater brand awareness, giving and lifelong loyalty. Kimbia is proud to support more than 5,000 customers to date, including the American Heart Association, Smithsonian Institution, YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, Columbia University, Georgetown University, WGBH – Boston, KCSM – San Mateo, GiveMN.org, The Ragnar Relay Series, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Miami Foundation and The Boston Foundation. For more information, visit http://www.kimbia.com.
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Kelly Garrott, Kimbia, http://www.kimbia.com, +1 (512) 366-3240, [email protected]
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