Wow, WW readers, you just blew the socks (and the shoes, pants and shirt) off the goals we set for our 2014 Give!Guide.
We had hoped as many as 7,500 of you would give as much as $2.6 million to 136 local nonprofits (and the Oregon Cultural Trust) between the day this all kicked off—Nov. 5—and midnight New Year's Eve.
Instead, to our great joy and astonishment, 10,277 of you gave $3,145,015. Whatever the superlative of amazing is, you are it!
I cannot imagine what this place would be like without you, without so many generous local companies, and without our truly incredible nonprofit community. It just wouldn't be…Portland.
The flood of warm, supportive emails and letters we receive shows your true colors. My favorite went like this:
"Our children joined my wife and me last night—as we do each year—to work our way through the easily navigable Give!Guide website to choose among a bunch of worthy organizations. The choices are always tough, but our kids look forward to this each year as they decide where their donations should go, followed by my wife and me matching their donations with our choices. Thanks again for helping families like ours inculcate early on in our children the value of giving."
Along with so much generous correspondence, we've also assembled an array of tantalizing analytics.
- Fully 54 percent (5,583) of you are new this year. That has been underscored by letters and emails from development directors noting how this yearâs G!G brought them a wealth of new donors.
- 3,043 (29 percent) of you are 35 or under. Thatâs a 47.7 percent increase from last yearâand is likely attributable to the incredible generosity of McMenamins, whose eponymous Challenge provided $1,000 apiece to the nonprofits garnering the greatest number of donations by the under-36 crowd in each category. The winners: Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank, PDX Pop Now!, Street Roots, Right Brain Initiative, Friends of Trees, Growing Gardens, Raphael House, and New Avenues for Youth.
- On the final day, the G!G website processed donations at the rate of nearly one per secondâthey zipped across the giveguide.org screen like reports from a stock exchange. Huge thanks to Grady Britton (especially master coder Joey Yax) for making significant improvements to the G!G site this year.
- Southeast Portland has finally overtaken Northeast in terms of total donations. Northeast led all 10 years of G!Gâs first decade.
- Big Give! Days brought in over $713,000. For them, we thank Powellâs City of Books; the Timbers, Thorns, and Trail Blazers; Salt & Straw; Bike Gallery; and Rogue Ales & Spirits.
- Other giving statistics, as well as names of sponsors and business partners, can be found at giveguide.org.
- Thanks to your example, we have helped jumpstart Give!Guides in other parts of the countryâColorado Springs, Monterey, Napa Valley, and the Triangle of North Carolina. You have shown how effective this form of giving can be, and we hope to help create similar efforts in one or two additional communities in 2015.
There are way too many people and organizations to thank for G!G's success, but I have to give a special shout-out to the team at WW: Chris Petryszak, Iris Meyers, Brent Walth, Steph Barnhart, Sam Cusumano, Jane Smith, Mark Zusman—and, especially, our indomitable executive director, Nick Johnson.
WW's Give!Guide will be back in November. We have a house rule that at least 30 percent of the participating nonprofits be new each year. So if you know any local nonprofit you'd like to see participating, send their name and a contact person to Nick (njohnson@wweek.com). We will be accepting applications in June at giveguide.org.
There is a fundamental principle behind all of this, inscribed on the Skidmore Fountain in Old Town: "Good citizens are the riches of a city." You are those citizens, and Portland is fortunate to have so many of you playing an active part in her life.
Thank you,
Richard H. Meeker
PUBLISHER
P.S. This week and next WW is publishing a Volunteer Guide. Its purpose is to help guide you to give something in addition to your hard-earned cash to local nonprofits. Your sweat equity is just as valuable.
Results, by Participating Nonprofit
1000 Friends of Oregon $39,135
4 Worlds United Soccer Alliance $3,337
AC Portland $2,995
Adelante Mujeres $17,610
Adventures Without Limits $5,174
Artichoke Community Music $4,831
Audubon Society of Portland $40,335
Baby Blues Connection $8,840
Bicycle Transportation Alliance $41,902
Big Brothers Big Sisters $6,103
Bradley Angle $22,250
BRAVO Youth Orchestras $7,770
CASA for Children $22,461
Cat Adoption Team $47,690
Central City Concern $33,540
The Children's Book Bank $19,504
Classroom Law Project $22,329
CoHo Productions $9,319
Columbia Riverkeeper $14,796
Community Cycling Center $67,946
Community Warehouse $23,937
Crag Law Center $13,841
The Dental Foundation of Oregon $13,892
Depave $15,580
Disjecta Contemporary Art Center $4,981
Donate Life Northwest $4,050
The Dougy Center $10,610
Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors $12,570
Ethos,Inc. $10,040
Family Dogs New Life Shelter $13,225
Farmers Ending Hunger $10,621
Farmers Market Fund $6,889
FearNoMusic $5,333
Fences For Fido $14,410
Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon $42,495
The Forest Park Conservancy $31,043
Friends of Family Farmers $4,950
Friends of Outdoor School $28,431
Friends of the Children - Portland $20,068
Friends of the Columbia Gorge $74,281
Friends of Trees $25,574
Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest $9,365
Growing Gardens $22,815
Habitat for Humanity-Metro East $59,953
Hacienda CDC $8,195
Harper's Playground $10,505
Hells Canyon Preservation Council $14,446
HomePlate Youth Services $13,430
Hoyt Arboretum Friends $11,170
Human Solutions $20,415
"I Have a Dream" Oregon $18,901
IRCO $9,399
ImpactNW $16,685
IPRC $13,380
John Callahan Memorial $5,345
JOIN $43,791
Late Night Library $3,860
The Library Foundation $38,014
LiteraryArts $18,120
Live Wire Radio $8,054
Living Yoga $7,547
Marathon Scholars $6,842
Meals on Wheels People $45,160
Mercy Corps Northwest $59,179
Miracle Theatre Group $7,340
Museum of Contemporary Craft $9,690
My Voice Music $17,250
Neighborhood House $31,804
New Avenues for Youth $23,344
NE X NE Community Health Center $36,916
Northeast Emergency Food Program $11,210
Northwest Mothers Milk Bank $18,100
On-the-Move Community Integration $8,415
Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center $7,883
Operation Nightwatch $21,691
Oregon Cultural Trust $295,680
Oregon Food Bank $133,301
Oregon Humane Society $45,021
Oregon Humanities $8,174
OLCV Education Fund $11,348
Oregon Museum of Science & Industry $21,046
Oregon TradeswomenInc. $16,507
Oregon Walks $6,975
Oregon Wild $23,837
OutsideIn $33,696
p:ear $39,152
Partnership for Safety and Justice $11,252
PAW (Portland Animal Welfare) Team $23,700
PDX Pop Now! $15,000
Pendulum AerialArts $2,625
PHAME $5,018
Planned Parenthood $131,980
PlayWrite,Inc. $9,610
Polaris Dance Theatre $2,213
The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank $151,573
Portland Fruit Tree Project $21,443
Portland Gay Men's Chorus $5,718
Portland Homeless Family Solutions $23,920
The Portland Kitchen $8,610
Portland Playhouse $11,590
Portland Tool Libraries $6,635
Portland Women's Crisis Line (PWCL) $21,004
Portland YouthBuilders $28,605
Potluck in the Park $13,250
Pride Foundation $2,767
Project POOCH,Inc. $21,730
Raphael House of Portland $32,443
REACH Community Development $9,981
Restore Oregon $3,803
Returning Veterans Project $15,393
The Right Brain Initiative $19,912
Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls $10,820
Rose Haven $13,399
Schoolhouse Supplies $16,180
SCRAP $7,339
The Shadow Project $20,733
Sisters Of The Road $58,158
SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) $25,554
Southwest Community Health Center $10,080
Staged! Musical Theatre $5,257
Street Roots $33,987
Tavern Books $3,564
The Tucker-Maxon School $9,721
Transition Projects $28,850
Urban Gleaners $26,795
Vibe of Portland $16,315
Village Gardens, Janus Youth Programs $6,336
Virginia Garcia Foundation $19,033
Volunteers of America $5,765
Voz Workers' Rights Education Project $5,404
Wallace Medical Concern $23,835
West Women's and Children's Shelter $14,233
WhiteBird $5,526
Willamette Riverkeeper $14,745
Write Around Portland $13,466
XRAY.fm $19,544
Young Audiences $7,142
TOTAL: $3,145,015
WWeek 2015