Give to the Max Day sets new records

Posted at 12:30 AM on November 17, 2011 by Marianne Combs
Filed under: Funding

As the clock wound down to 00:00, GiveMN proclaimed these rather awe-inspiring numbers at the top of its website:

47,539 donors raised $13,559,905 for 3,978 MN nonprofits.

Update: as of 9:41am, the totals have been revised downward slightly to now reflect the following:

47,537 donors raised $13,559,530 for 3,978 MN nonprofits.

And while the record set for giving was $14 million in its inaugural year, I'm betting once the prizes and matching dollars have all been accounted for, and the final numbers crunched, this year's total will set a new record.

It has already set records in two other categories: donors and nonprofits.

For reference, here's how things played out in past years:

2009: 38,000 donors raised $14 million for 3,141 MN nonprofits

2010: 42,596 donors raised $10 million for 3,663 MN nonprofits

This year's big winners are as follows -

In the main nonprofit category (which excludes higher ed institutions):

1 Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners $319,938
2 Cretin-Derham Hall $268,909
3 Second Harvest Heartland $256,225
4 THE CONVENT AND ACADEMY OF THE VISITATION $219,522
5 ACADEMY OF HOLY ANGELS $166,501
6 Animal Humane Society $164,707
7 JABBOK FOUNDATION $103,385
8 Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota $103,200
9 Catholic Charities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis $93,390
10 MOUNDS PARK ACADEMY $79,342

In the small nonprofit category (those with budgets under $750,000):

1 JABBOK FOUNDATION $103,385
2 NORTH AMERICAN BEAR CENTER $63,110
3 Clifton House dba Beacon Haven $59,085
4 Wildcat Sanctuary $44,463
5 Helping Paws of Minnesota, Inc. $42,973
6 JEWISH COMMUNITY ACTION $41,591
7 Christians for Biblical Equality $38,119
8 CHURCH OF ST. JOSEPH - RED WING $35,926
9 Students Today Leaders Forever $34,246
10 Project Zawadi Incorporated $33,590

And in the category of higher education nonprofits:

1 St. Olaf College $230,713
2 CONCORDIA COLLEGE CORPORATION $97,923
3 College of Saint Benedict $76,880
4 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION $62,992
5 SAINT MARY'S UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA $48,275
6 Hamline University $41,345
7 Luther Seminary $34,120
8 AUGSBURG COLLEGE $26,776
9 Gustavus Adolphus College $26,180
10 Northwestern College $21,224

While none of the participating arts organizations made it into the top ten lists, several fared quite well, including the following:

Springboard for the Arts $46,117
THE CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER INC $43,046
Hennepin Theatre Trust $19,438
NORTH HOUSE FOLK SCHOOL $19,417
VocalEssence $17,860
MINNESOTA BOYCHOIR $17,302
Minnesota Orchestra $16,757
NATIONAL LUTHERAN CHOIR CORPORATION $12,925
SINGERS MINNESOTA CHORAL ARTISTS $12,150
Serrand Epp dba The MovingCompany $11,750

Tomorrow - or rather, later today - I'll take a closer look at some of the interesting tidbits to come from this day.

(Editor's note: In full disclosure, while I do not participate in Give to the Max Day, my employer does. Over the past 24 hours MPR raised $28,434 through GiveMN.)

Final Give to the Max numbers not expected to change much

Posted at 2:38 PM on November 17, 2011 by Marianne Combs
Filed under: Funding

I should know better than to make bets.

In the wee hours of the morning I "bet" that Give to the Max Day would set a new financial record. The closing number was right around $13.5 million, the record was $14m, and in the first year of the drive award money was added after the close of the day, causing an approximate $1 million jump.

But this year was different.

I spoke to GiveMN's Dana Nelson this afternoon, who's hard at work with her colleagues doing some number crunching before issuing final numbers. But she says she doesn't expect the $13.5m number to change signicantly, because award money (from "golden tickets" and the like) was added throughout the day.

The $13.5 million figure also reflects approximately $2 million in matching funds secured by Minnesota nonprofits to encourage donations. These matching grants are not verified directly by GiveMN.

"We don't police that," said Nelson, "It would be almost impossible to do so. But we coach nonprofits on how to get a match, and we encourage them to list the source of the match on their donation page."

Nelson explains that while she does "spot-check" certain matching grants, it would be a logistical nightmare to double-check the details of more than $6 million in matching grants when she's working with close to 4,000 nonprofits.

That brings us to another point of interest. While more than $6 million was offered in matching grants, only about a third of that money was taken advantage of on Give to the Max Day.

Nelson says she hopes those nonprofits with remaining matching monies will use the momentum created by Give to the Max Day to continue to fundraise.