NORTHAMPTON — It wasn’t a record-breaking drive, but the generosity of donors during Valley Gives Day helped pump more than $2 million into 453 participating nonprofit organizations.
During the 24-hour online fundraising frenzy Tuesday, more than 10,000 donors provided approximately $1.8 million to organizations in Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties, coupled with an additional $200,000 in challenge grants.
“I think the outpouring (Tuesday) proved we have an incredibly generous Valley,” said Katie Allan Zobel, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, which organizes the philanthropic gift-giving event for the Pioneer Valley.
“It was much more than I anticipated,” Zobel added of the charitable giving. “To have over 10,000 people making a gift in a 24-hour period, I was inspired and impressed.”
Valley Gives Day began as a three-year pilot project in 2012 and before Tuesday had engaged more than 24,000 donors who helped raise $5.8 million for some 550 nonprofits in the Valley.
The last Valley Gives Day was held in 2014, when 463 organizations raised $2.6 million from 14,189 donors. The previous fundraising drives were held at the end of the year, a time when charitable giving is more entrenched. This year, the foundation shifted the event to the spring and the results were still positive.
As part of the drive, the first 600 new donors to Valley Gives Day had an additional $50 added to their gifts by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, which provided hundreds of additional opportunities for nonprofits to secure additional charitable prizes.
“It’s just trying to encourage lots and lots of people to get involved,” Zobel said of the new donor initiative. “What we really want to see is, did the springtime bring more people into the fold?”
Valley Gives Day posted the fundraising results on its website and provided additional gifts of $1,000 to $5,000 for organizations that received donations from the most unique donors.
Topping the small organizations was Empty Arms Bereavement Support Inc. in Westhampton, with 248 donors providing $10,077. It was followed by the Friends of the Hilltown Cooperative Charter School and Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School Family Association, which received donations from 205 and 174 donors, respectively, in amounts totaling nearly $10,000 and $11,000. There were 190 groups in the small organizations category.
The Grace in Haiti School Project of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst was new to Valley Gives Day this year and also placed among the top 10 in unique donors for small organizations, with 109 people raising more than $6,000. The church’s congregation has been financially assisting a small elementary school in rural Bayonnais, Haiti, since 2008, and the money will go a long way toward helping build a new school for students, said Dee Dee Niswonger of Williamsburg, a member of the congregation’s committee involved in the work.
“It’s very exciting to us,” Niswonger said. “It’s an area where kids come to school hungry. There are kids who could not go to school without the help that is given to them. That’s why we are there.”
Niswonger noted that when Grace Church first got involved with the school, there were 28 students, a number that has grown to 132 today. She said Valley Gives Day affords an opportunity for the church to expand its field of donors and raise the profile of its charitable work in Haiti.
“Until now, most of the donations have come from the congregation of Grace Church,” she said. “What we were worried about was the future and can we keep this project going?”
Organizations receiving gifts with the biggest pools of unique donors were in the category of large organizations, including New England Public Radio, which raised $51,351 from 792 donors, and the Dakin Humane Society, which raised $27,855 from 557 unique donors.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield, the Connecticut River Watershed Council in Greenfield and Safe Passage in Northampton also were in the top five for unique donors among large organizations.
“We’re really happy with how it went,” said Sarah Smith, development director at Safe Passage. “All told, we should bring in over $15,000, which for one day is pretty phenomenal.”
The organization serves survivors of domestic violence through an array of services, which a drive like Valley Gives Day can allow the organization to both sustain and expand, Smith said. She noted that charitable giving through Valley Gives Day is particularly helpful to the organization because it allows flexibility with how the money is spent.
“It gives us the ability to hone our approach to clients and to be flexible and responsive to what they need,” she said, noting that Valley Gives Day motivates people to give, from new donors to regular ones.
“We had people who had never given before and we had people give who have not given in many years,” Smith said. “I can’t say enough positive things about it.”
Zobel said trustees of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts have voted to continue to support Valley Gives Day. The foundation provides fundraising training opportunities for participating organizations in advance of the event. She said the organization will analyze this year’s data and results, and solicit feedback from donors and organizations about the effectiveness of the online drive with an eye to the future.
“What happens next, stay tuned,” she said.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.