The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven announced that approximately $1.4 million will be distributed to area nonprofits thanks to more than 8,130 donors who made over 11,600 gifts during The Great Give.
It was the most successful Great Give event ever, as measured by dollars raised, number of gifts made and number of donors supporting the nonprofit sector serving Greater New Haven and the Valley.
Technology difficulties of the national online platform provider slowed the progress of The Great Give on May 3, an issue that unfortunately was experienced by dozens of other communities nationwide that were participating in Give Local America’s Day of Giving.
“Ultimately, what made the event so successful was the way in which our local philanthropic community of donors and nonprofits rallied to surmount the technology obstacles that had been placed in our way.”, said William W. Ginsberg, President and CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. “It was inspiring to see and to be a part of. I am so proud of our community and of The Foundation’s staff.”
The entire community embraced the giving event. The creativity from the nonprofit sector continued to engage donors through the very end; there were multiple events, shared videos and countless emails.
Following the lead of its sister paper, the Valley Independent Sentinel the preceding year, the New Haven Independent/WNHH 103.5FM hosted a 36-hour live-streaming radiothon, inviting nonprofits to promote their organizations through song and poetry.
To spur giving, more than $190,000 was ultimately provided in pro-rated matching funds and prizes by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Valley Community Foundation (VCF), Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Liberty Bank Foundation and others.
Three Grand Prizes were awarded to the nonprofits that attracted the greatest number of new donors ($10,000 to Music Haven; $5,000 to Elm City Internationals; $3,000 to Squash Haven) and the greatest number of donors ($15,000 to New Haven Land Trust; $5,000 to Center Stage Theater; $3,000 IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services).
New to the prize pool in 2016 was a $2,500 NextGen prize awarded to Elm City Montessori for getting the greatest percentage of gifts from NextGen donors; twelve percent of the gifts made through The Great Give 2016 were from donors born between 1974 and 1989.
In addition, a variety of prizes were awarded to nonprofits for: the largest single gift received, first time and repeat giving increases, staff size, greatest percentage of increase in donors and dollars raised as well as randomly drawn prizes throughout the event.
Click here https://thegreatgive.org/leaderboards to see The Great Give® 2016 Prize Winners and list of participating nonprofits.
The Valley Community Foundation (VCF), The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s partner in philanthropy, provided additional prizes during The Great Give & 2016, incentivizing residents and workers in the five Valley towns of Ansonia, Derby Oxford, Seymour and Shelton.
More than 1500 gifts were made to Valley-based organizations; $254,800 was raised by Valley residents, workers and VCF donor advised fund holders.
VCF Grand Prize winners will be announced at an upcoming ice cream social Thursday, May 26. To learn more, please contact the Valley Community Foundation at 203 – 751-9162.
The Great Give is the annual online giving event on giveGreater.org®, a local resource for learning and giving created in 2010 by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to increase philanthropy in the Greater New Haven region of South Central Connecticut.
Donors wishing to support their favorite cause or charity can visit the giveGreater.org website to find information on over 350 nonprofits, including their mission, governance, programs, financials and community impact.
Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded over $30 million in grants and distributions in 2015 from charitable assets of more than $500 million and composed of hundreds of individually named funds.
In addition to its grantmaking, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, create healthy families in New Haven, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org and and The Great Give, and encourage better understanding of the region.
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge.
For more information, visit www.cfgnh.org or follow The Foundation on Facebook www.facebook.org/cfgnh and Twitter www.twitter.com/cfgnh.
