Get Ready for the 10th Annual Give for Good Louisville
Writer / Gavin LaPaille
Photography Provided
Those looking to support their favorite charity and give back to the local community have the perfect avenue coming their way. Give for Good Louisville, the biggest day of online giving in Kentuckiana, returns September 14 for its 10th annual event, and organizers hope to continue the mission of sparking generosity across the region.
Give for Good Louisville is put on by the Community Foundation of Louisville, and aims to mobilize people, networks and capital to spark meaningful change in and beyond the city. Created in 2014, Give for Good Louisville has seen 137,300 individual donors invest $50.6 million into the community. Last year alone, more than $8 million was donated from 22,270 individuals in all 50 states and 47 countries.
“So often, Louisville is in the national news not for the greatest things,” says Christina Miller, director of marketing and communications for the Community Foundation of Louisville. “Give for Good Louisville instills hope because it is a living proof that when we do come together as a community, we truly do amazing things for each other. Whatever you’re most passionate about, you are going to find an organization in that area you can get connected with.”
Approximately 500 to 600 organizations take part in Give for Good Louisville each year, with about 75% returning annually. A wide range of missions are featured, including 501(c)(3) public charities, private foundations, veteran organizations and religious institutions. Businesses located in Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Bullitt counties in Kentucky, as well as Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties in Indiana, may participate.
Organizations are broken into tiers by size, with Metro United Way, Louisville Collegiate School and Virginia Chance School receiving the most donations last year. Many saw total donations top $100,000 or more from hundreds of different unique donors.
Miller starts talking to participating businesses months in advance, making sure all are prepared ahead of time for the big day.
“We give nonprofits everything they need in order to have a successful day,” Miller says. “We want to make it as easy as possible on them, from the professional side of things to our trainings, assets and graphics. There are a number of nonprofits who are operating as a team of one. When you have one person doing multiple jobs, you can’t be everywhere at once. We try to make that as easy as possible by giving them those resources and consultations.”
Give for Good Louisville’s main objectives involve providing a platform for organizations to engage with existing donors, and creating opportunities to reach new ones. Potential donors looking to participate can do so by visiting giveforgoodlouisville.org and browsing the organizations. Donors unsure of which entity to support can also search the causes that resonate with them the most.
“Give for Good Louisville enables organizations the opportunity to gain new donors,” Miller says. “Nearly half of the donors are donating to an organization they had never donated to before. That’s our intentions with the day. It’s an opportunity to come together easily as a community and invest back into our organizations.”
Collaboration with other businesses is also a benefit to participating. Give for Good Louisville facilitates relationships between organizations in an effort to identify and reach common goals, while utilizing advertising and media partners to promote the giving day, creating heightened awareness across the community. Miller says it is important for nonprofits to look at each other as partners that can help one another, rather than competitors for limited funds.
“There are enough resources out there for everyone, especially when it comes to funding,” Miller says. “When we work together, we are able to help more people connect to those resources. The giving day is the opportunity for that culture shift to occur. We really encourage that.”
No gift is too small during Give for Good Louisville, as any gift has the potential to help an organization win a variety of prizes. Some of the awards are for receiving the most gifts during certain time periods, being randomly selected for donation boosts, creating the most interesting social media post, and securing the most unique donors. Local companies such as Churchill Downs and the Sam Swope Family Foundation help support these prizes and give donors incentives to donate throughout the day.
“I’ve heard donors say they don’t know how their $10 donation will make a difference,” Miller says. “But that coupled with 20 other similar donations do make a difference. If you donate during certain periods of the day, your $10 donation can turn into a $1,000 donation if it gets selected for one of our prizes. We have a number of different prizes that focus on motivating donors to give throughout the day.”
Give for Good Louisville also features other organizations that participate primarily as business fundraisers. What that means is these companies encourage their employees to give, and compete for the title of the most generous business in Kentuckiana. Last year Churchill Downs and Derby City Gaming won this distinction by raising more than $19,000 from employees in one day.
“We always want to increase participation on the giving day, not only from the organization and donor side of things, but from local businesses and community leaders and media partners,” Miller says. “That’s bonus money for the nonprofits and makes it fun for the donors.”
None of this would be possible without the event’s host, the Community Foundation of Louisville. As a leader in social impact and innovation, the Community Foundation brings together individual donors, nonprofit organizations and businesses partners to transform the community through charitable giving. Founded in 1984, the Community Foundation is one of the largest charitable foundations in Kentucky with over $800 million in assets and more than 2,300 charitable funds created by donors. Miller says Give for Good Louisville is a huge part of the Community Foundation’s mission each year.
“When we first started as a foundation, we were providing services to folks who were looking to provide funds with us and we were distributing those funds back into the community,” Miller says. “This day came out of need for our community and allows us to respond to community needs. It’s turned into a massive and nationally recognized giving day that only attracts more people to invest in Louisville and, in this case, our local nonprofits.”
Miller hopes Give for Good Louisville will continue to grow and reach organizations throughout the community. The event leaders have found the online-only format tends to work best for reaching high engagement and impact, rather than having an in-person event.
“It’s definitely not going away any time soon,” Miller says. “For some folks, this is their leading fundraiser because it is so cost-effective. It takes a lot of money to put on a gala or silent auction. While there are some minimal costs with the giving day, it’s not a lot for what you get on your return. We will continue to use this as our leading way to connect with people. This day is that mechanism for the community to give back in profound ways.”
For more information, visit giveforgoodlouisville.org, email info@giveforgoodlouisville.org, or follow @cflouisville on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates, announcements and more.
