The 2014 GoodGiving Guide Challenge – an annual campaign geared to increase year-end giving to local non-profits – wrapped up on Friday, December 12 with a total of $1,737,659 raised for 155 local nonprofits. The total was a result of individual donors and matching grants from local corporations and other organizations.
Organized by the Blue Grass Community Foundation and Smiley Pete Publishing (this magazine's parent company), this year's campaign “was an even greater success than the year before, with increased contributions and significantly more donors,” according to Lisa Adkins, president and CEO of the Blue Grass Community Foundation; this success was despite the fact that the campaign lasted only six weeks this year, compared to eight weeks in years past.
Adkins said that reducing the length of the challenge was an “experiment to see if we could accomplish the same amount of community participation, while reducing any burden on nonprofit participants and decrease the risk of donor fatigue.”
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Total dollars raised in 2014 were up 3.7 per cent from the 2013 campaign, with the number of unique donors – 4,647 – up more than 13 percent from last year.
“We consider it a huge success,” she said. “What worked best this year was increased word of mouth and creative social media – more people are discovering that the GoodGiving Guide Challenge is a simple, fun and rewarding way to learn about and give to the terrific nonprofits serving our community and region.”
The top earning non-profit this year was God’s Pantry Food Bank, which earned $42,250. To see a complete list of the nonprofits and their totals raised, click here.