They say the third time’s the charm, and ArkansasGives has plans to make it’s third year every bit as successful (and charming), even though organizers announced that 2017 will be its final year.
ArkansasGives comes from the teaming up of the Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance and the Arkansas Community Foundation to create a day devoted to online giving for local nonprofits. Gifts not only went to the donator’s choice hundreds of registered charities, but also helped the organizations earn bonus dollars matched from a pool provided by the ACF. In it’s two years, the event raised more than $6 million.
So why end it? The event’s goals are three fold:
- to get people excited about giving to nonprofits at a time other than the traditional year-end and reach out to new givers
- to expand marketing and fundraising capabilities for Arkansas nonprofits so that they can take advantage of social media and online giving to achieve their missions
- to increase awareness of the impact of nonprofits statewide.
“We believe all these goals will be accomplished after our third event,” ACF CEO Heather Larkin said in a press release. “We already see many of the nonprofit participants using the training from Arkansas Community Foundation and experience in online giving to expand their fundraising and marketing activities.”
Stephanie Purifoy, the development manager of Audubon Arkansas, agrees. She added, “In addition to raising money on the day of the event, we are able to learn more about online fundraising through webinars from the Foundation and earn experience in helping our donors learn to give online.”
It’s been a good run, ArkansasGives. The philanthropic world will miss you when you’re gone, but until then, registration is open for nonprofits to participate from Oct. 1 – Feb. 14.
ArkansasGives 2017 is scheduled for April 6. For more information, visit the ArkansasGives website.