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Community Corner

Announcing The Great Give® 2014: a 36-Hour Giving Event to Raise Money for Greater New Haven Nonprofits

Begins May 6th 8:00 am EDT and ends May 7th at 8:00 pm 

New Haven, CT (April 25, 2014) –The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven announces The Great Give® 2014, The Foundation’s fifth community-wide online giving campaign to raise funds for local nonprofits serving Greater New Haven. The Great Give® 2014 will take place this year in conjunction with Give Local America’s national day of giving to celebrate the centennial of community foundations and their work to promote local philanthropy. In prior years, the event has been held in the fall; this year’s event is being held once in the Spring. Over a 36-hour period from May 6 at 8:00 am to May 7 at 8:00 pm, donors who give through The Great Give® 2014 will help local nonprofits win thousands of dollars in grant prizes for raising the most money, attracting the most number of donors, new donors and more. Gifts will be matched on a pro-rated basis with additional funds by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Valley Community Foundation. A list of complete rules, grant prizes and participating nonprofits is online at www.thegreatgive.org.

“Campaigns like The Great Give have expanded our community’s knowledge of the needs and opportunities addressed by our nonprofit partners and raised more than $2.2 million for their benefit over the past several years,” says William W. Ginsberg, president & CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. 

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In 2013, The Community Foundation released a report on the State of the Nonprofit Sector in Greater New Haven, which provides a 5 year perspective on how local nonprofits have fared since the economy began to slow. Data indicates that nonprofits can benefit from flexible funding to plan, invest in technology and other infrastructure and to train personnel in order to provide their much-needed services to our local communities.

“Online campaigns such as The Great Give® offer donors an easy and secure way to support local nonprofits while leveraging matching dollars provided by sponsors. From the nonprofit perspective, they are a terrific way to increase a nonprofit’s visibility among new donors and provide them with much needed flexible funds to spend on their operations. And for all who participate, such campaigns can be engaging and fun,” continued Ginsberg.  

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The majority of the nearly $150,000 in matching funds and grant prizes is being provided by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and The Valley Community Foundation. Additional prizes have been created by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Higher One Cares.

The Great Give® is the annual online giving event on giveGreater.org®, a local resource for learning and giving created in 2010 by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to increase philanthropy in the Greater New Haven region of South Central Connecticut. Donors wishing to support their favorite cause or charity can visit the giveGreater.org® website to find information on more than 300 nonprofits, including their mission, governance, programs, financials and community impact.

Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded $21 million in grants and distributions in 2013 from an endowment of approximately $430 million and comprising hundreds of individually named funds. In addition to its grant-making, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, reduce New Haven’s infant mortality rate, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org and encourage community awareness at www.cfgnh.org/learn. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven, Woodbridge. For more information about The Community Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org, find us on Facebook at www.facebook.org/cfgnh or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cfgnh

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