How Minnesotans Gave to the Max

This past Tuesday, November 16th was like most any other early winter day in Minnesota. Crisp temps, a little sunshine and some snow-covered pumpkins on porch steps... But inside our office and thousands of other nonprofits across the state, we weren't too focused on what was going on outside. I was obsessed with clicking that little blue round arrow at the top of my internet browser. And the website that was up on my screen? GiveMN.org

Tuesday was the second annual Give to the Max Day - a statewide push to promote philanthropy and online donations to the thousands of nonprofits in Minnesota. And WOW what a turnout!

First though I should start by reminding everyone that last year's inaugural Give to the Max Day smashed all sorts of records when 38,000 donors raised over $14,000,000 (yes that's MILLION) for 3,434 Minnesota nonprofits. So needless to say, it was a lot to live up to.

This year's results were truly amazing though... when they first started promoting 2010's GTMD they set a goal of getting 40,000 individual donors to give during that 24 hour period. The goal was met and then exceeded when 42,596 people raised over $10,000,000 for 3,663 nonprofits!

I stayed up until 11:45PM on Tuesday night watching the neck and neck race between the North American Bear Center and Concordia College. Even though their total donation spread was more than $150,000 they were competing for the most number of individual donors - and the stakes were pretty high. The nonprofit with the most number of donors would receive an extra $20,000. It was really quite fun to see - to see a smaller nonprofit in Ely and a large college in Northfield 'playing on same field'. (And since I fell asleep before the race ended I awoke to find that the St. Olaf had won by only eight donors!)

Congrats to all of the nonprofits who received donations on Tuesday and thank you to the staff at GiveMN for a well-promoted, well-received, well-executed day of giving! Kudos to you!

Want to learn more about GiveMN and GTMD?
Watch their fun "thank you" video or take a look at the GiveMN.org website.