2016 Days of Giving – final results
Nearly $6 million raised for charitable organizations
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 20, 2016 – More than 15,700 people made contributions during The Pittsburgh Foundation’s successful Sept. 21 Day of Giving, bringing the official total for two giving day events this year to $5.9 million for nonprofits in Allegheny, Westmoreland and Butler counties. As important as the dollars raised is the culture of philanthropy that the events foster regionally among donors, nonprofits and the public. To date, Pittsburgh Foundation-sponsored Days of Giving have raised more than $43 million for regional nonprofits.
The Foundation added a September giving day after being forced to halt its May 3 event due to a nationwide failure of its donation with the Day of Giving website. With the addition of a new crowdfunding provider, a back-up donation platform and months of testing, the www.pittsburghgives.org website worked exactly as planned on Sept. 21.
An evolving program: The Pittsburgh Foundation organized the first Day of Giving in 2009. The lure of matching funds was a significant draw in the early years of the event, but as it grew in popularity, demand for matching funds quickly outpaced the ability of the Foundation to offer meaningful matching pools. By 2013, the Foundation was exploring new ways to ensure that Days of Giving offered real value to the nonprofits involved. Since then, the Foundation has focused its efforts on helping nonprofits build their own fundraising capacity. For Allegheny County nonprofits this year, the Foundation replaced the match pool format with support services and incentive prize funding to enable nonprofits to raise their own pools of dedicated matching-fund donors.
This capacity-building strategy worked far better than expected: Allegheny County nonprofits self-reported raising $2.35 million in matching funds in 2016, far exceeding the $750,000 in matching funds provided by the Foundation in 2013 and 2014.
County |
Sept. 21 Day of Giving |
Sept. 21 Matching Funds |
May 3 Day of Giving |
May 3 Matching Funds |
Prize Money |
County Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegheny | $1,739,313 | $2,349,797* | $934,981 | n/a | $200,000 | $5,224,091 |
| Westmoreland | $266,235 | $50,000 | $206,330 | $28,083 | n/a | $550,648 |
| Butler | $93,343 | $23,366 | $54,808 | $13,228 | n/a | $184,745 |
| TOTAL | $2,098,891 | $2,423,163 | $1,196,119 | $2,391,108 | $200,000 | $5,959,484 |
*self-reported matching funds raised by Allegheny County nonprofits
“I can’t think of another community that cares as deeply and gives as much as Pittsburgh does. The ingenuity and creativity that nonprofits demonstrated by raising more than $2 million in matching funds for Days of Giving far exceeded our expectations,” said Maxwell King, the Foundation’s president and CEO.
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank raised the most overall, with 764 donations totaling $105,045 and a match pool of $176,318. To make sure that small nonprofits benefited from the event as much as those with larger fundraising operations, the Foundation introduced a new incentive prize pool of $200,000 to reward Allegheny County organizations that creatively used social media and other approaches to generate support.
Incentive prize winners included:
• Most Twitter mentions for the entire day (Achieva, $3,000 prize)
• Most creative use of social media (Pittsburgh Center for Reuse, $5,000 prize)
• Highest number of donations from unique ZIP codes (German Shorthaired Pointer Rescue Pennsylvania Inc., $1,500 prize).
A complete list of prizes and overall funds raised at the September event is available on the “Leaderboards” section of pittsburghgives.org.
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