You’ve probably been hearing more and more about online giving over the last couple of years. So had Carl, but I’ll get to that in a minute. There are many benefits to you and to Bridges of Hope when you make your gift online. It’s less expensive, it’s quick, it’s easy, and you get a thank you message and a receipt on the day you make your gift, sometimes even within minutes.
At Bridges of Hope we use GiveMN.org as our giving portal. GiveMN is a wonderful nonprofit organization based in the Twin Cities that works to make online giving simple and engaging for nonprofits and donors alike. Dana Nelson, GiveMN Executive Director and her team have made online giving easy and inexpensive for all Minnesota nonprofits.
A couple of years ago, in 2009, the first Give to the Max Day was launched in Minnesota. What happened that day astounded everyone. Generous donors in our state answered the call with gifts totaling more than 14 million dollars. Incredible.
That year, Bridges of Hope heard about Give to the Max Day at the last minute. We “claimed” the page provided for us by GiveMN and raised about $700. Hmmm, we thought, that was pretty easy. And that was the beginning.
In 2010, we had the good fortune of participating in two giving challenges; each had matching dollars from foundations in our area. During those two giving challenges, we raised more than $11,000, in just 18 days! Wow, we thought, there really is something to this online giving.
And that’s where Carl comes in. In 2010, Carl heard me speak at a local service club about one of the upcoming online giving challenges we were about to participate in. Carl is a retired educator in our area, probably about 85 years young. He approached me after the meeting and said, “I appreciate what your organization does for families in this area, and I want to do that ‘doubling’ thing, but I don’t have a computer. So how can I do it?” I spent some time visiting with Carl, and by the end of our conversation, I invited him to come in to my office and use my computer during the giving challenge so his gift could be doubled.
When I left that meeting, I wasn’t sure if I’d see Carl again or not–but sure enough, two days later, there was a knock on my office door. It was Carl, and he was ready to try this ‘online stuff’ and double his gift. He brought his credit card and we went to our secure GiveMN page to make Carl’s $200 gift which, thanks to a generous foundation’s matching dollars, turned into a $400 gift for families to be served by Bridges of Hope. As I printed him his receipt (Carl didn’t have email, either), Carl remarked, “that’s it? That was easy!”
That’s it. It is THAT easy to make double the difference for children and families in our area just like little Noah, Michael & Susan, and Kendra. You have the opportunity to double YOUR gift on Wednesday, November 16th. All online gifts made on November 16th will be doubled (up to $10,000) by the Otto Bremer Foundation.
A gift of just $150 enables Bridges to serve a family. That $150 will turn into $300 on Give to the Max Day–allowing to serve two families–or better yet, spread your gift out over the year. You can set up a monthly recurring donation of $25, which adds up to $300 over the course of a year. And guess what? That type of gift will be doubled on November 16th too! If you set up a monthly recurring donation of $25, your gift will be doubled and you will know that FOUR families will be served at Bridges, thanks to YOU!
Bridges of Hope has a $44,000 funding gap from now until the end of the year. Closing that gap will allow us to serve 293 more families before the end of the year. We have the opportunity to reduce this gap by at least $20,000 on November 16th. Can you help us? Carl was right. It’s easy!