Lexington’s fifth annual GoodGiving Guide Challenge charity fundraising drive raised more than $1.3 million for 115 nonprofits serving central and eastern Kentucky.
The online and phone-in donation program is an initiative of the Blue Grass Community Foundation with help from Smiley Pete Publications, publishers of Business Lexington, which helps organize the program.
“In addition to raising much-needed funds to continue their good work, nonprofits also competed for over $250,000 in prizes made possible by the Community Foundation and its generous partners and supporters,” said Lisa Adkins, the foundation’s president and CEO. “This year, our Co-Challengers Pool awarded endowment grant prizes of $5,000 each to nonprofits that performed exceptionally well in the Challenge, based on number of donors and amount raised.”
The endowments are permanent charitable funds that provide organizations with continuous support. The GoodGiving Guide Challenge began in late November and ran through the end of the year.
“The need is amazing,” said Smiley Pete publisher Chuck Creacy. “Those needs include housing, health care, animal shelters, education, single parenting issues, etc.”
Creacy said the latest GoodGiving drive had 85 returning nonprofits and 15 not-for-profit agencies that took part for the first time.
Several local businesses -- including Joe Rosenberg’s Jewelers, Pie Five Pizza, Raising Cane’s, Kentucky Bank, Traditional Bank and the Good Foods Co-op -- provided prizes to the the participating nonprofits.
The Community Foundation said more than 4,300 donors pleged donations ranging from $10 to $10,000. The agency said donors from Lexington’s 40502 ZIP code provided nearly $130,000, and that donations were received from 44 U.S. states and six countries, including Belgium, France and Thailand.