STANWOOD — Fourteen nonprofits in Stanwood and Camano Island are teaming up on a new local program to raise money online the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
Donations made over the Internet from midnight Nov. 30 to midnight Dec. 1 go toward activities for adults with dementia, band instruments for high school kids and a service center for veterans, among other projects. The donation website is stanwood camanogivingtuesday.org
The fundraising campaign is a pilot project coordinated by the Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation with help from the directors of the Camano Center, Safe Harbor Free Clinic and Stanwood Community Resource Center. If this year’s event is successful, they hope to see it grow next November.
Donors can choose from 14 projects sponsored by local nonprofits. They can donate to as many as they want in whatever amounts they choose. The website is designed to have meters next to each project on the day of the fundraiser showing how much has been raised and how much is left to reach the goal. The cap for any one request is $10,000.
Altogether, the nonprofits have a goal of $108,500. Most groups are seeking the full $10,000 allowed.
The American Legion hopes to build an office where veterans can meet in private with service officers and counselors. The Camano Animal Shelter Association is focused on paying for veterinary care and the Stillaguamish Grange seeks $3,000 to create a demonstration garden for gardening classes. New instruments are on the wish list for the Stanwood Band Boosters, new windows at the Pearson House for the Stanwood Historical Society and new interpretive signs for the Friends of Camano Island Parks. Northwest Incident Support is raising money to replace emergency equipment for volunteer crews.
Some projects are geared toward basic needs. The Stanwood Food Bank decided to highlight weekend meals for children and Safe Harbor Free Clinic is gathering donations for a respiratory clinic. The Stanwood Community and Senior Center’s project is a wellness program for low-income seniors and the Camano Center’s is an adult care program that gives people with memory loss a safe place to go.
Other projects focus on children and teens. The Stanwood Community Resource Center is collecting donations for after-school programs at the Davis Place Teen Center. The Stanwood Camano Soap Box Derby is seeking $5,000 to send two local champions to Akron, Ohio, for nationals. The Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation is looking for $5,000 toward a new grant program for innovative lessons and projects that aren’t part of a standard school budget.
The online fundraising campaign was inspired by the national Giving Tuesday trend, but organizers want to give it a local twist.
“This is kind of the wave of the future,” said Christie Connors, director of the resource center. “The research shows us this is the way younger donors want to donate. Not only do they want to donate online but they want to donate to projects, not agencies.”
The Stanwood-Camano Area Foundation used to offer grants to smaller nonprofits for projects like these but hasn’t had enough money the past four years, Executive Director Bev Pronishan said.
“It just occurred to me one day that this would be a perfect replacement for the grant program,” she said. “There’s a lot of different needs in the community, and there’s a wide range of interests among people who might like to donate to these projects.”
A Fiesta of Giving is planned at the resource center, 9612 271st St. NW, from 7 a.m. to midnight. Local businesses have agreed to sponsor matching donations for an early bird competition and a lunch hour event. Coastal Community Bank is giving $500 to the project with the most money raised by 9 a.m. and Lenz Enterprises is matching the first 15 donations of $100 between noon and 1 p.m. There also will be food, games and computers for donating.
“We’re going to celebrate all day long,” Camano Center director Karla Jacks said. “This is a great way to make sure my dollars are supporting the place where I live and my neighbors.”
The pilot project has a limited number of nonprofits because coordinators still are figuring out the system and testing the waters to see how well an online donation campaign goes over, Pronishan said. She wants to open it up to all local nonprofits next year. They can contact info@ s-caf.org to learn more.
The teamwork between organizations is critical, Pronishan said. Groups might have different projects but they share a common interest: helping others in Stanwood and Camano Island.
“This is starting to bring the nonprofits themselves together and it starts those dialogues and builds those relationships,” she said. “We can do more together than we can apart.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
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