A technical glitch in the early hours of the annual Erie Gives campaign put a pause on some of the donations flooding into the Erie Community Foundation's office.
It appeared for the first time since launching Erie Gives in 2011 to celebrate its 75th anniversary that the community's streak of 11 consecutive record years might have come to an end. Wednesday morning the Erie Gives website listed a total raised of $7.9 million.
More:Erie Gives, the 12-hour community fundraiser, supports more than 470 local nonprofits
But donors who had been turned away Tuesday by the glitch returned Wednesday to help put the 12-hour community fundraiser, which this year will benefit 493 local nonprofits, closer to matching last year's record of $8.17 million. As of Wednesday afternoon, the preliminary total raised was $8.15 million from just under 32,000 donations, but those numbers are expected to increase.
"A lot of checks are coming in now, people are coming by, the ones who got frustrated yesterday," Erin D. Fessler, vice president of marketing, community and government relations, said Wednesday morning. "It was probably around, we think, 9:30 to 11 a.m. that we were having issues. So the number has ticked up."
Biggest beneficiaries
- Foundation for Free Enterprise Education/Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week, $302,575 (191 donations)
- Erie Community Foundation, $246,995 (215)
- Erie Philharmonic, $230,670 (341)
- Erie City Mission, $204,435 (1,026)
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania, $196,875 (870)
- United Way of Erie County, $196,355 (129)
- Wayside Presbyterian Church, $143,713 (91)
- A.N.N.A. Shelter, $142,460 (891)
- Erie United Methodist Alliance, $139,884 (405)
- Barber National Institute, $123,969 (293)
Eight other agencies received total donations exceeding $100,000; 20 received donations from $99,999 to $50,000; 37 received a total ranging from $49,999 to $25,000; 76 received contributions of $24,999 to $10,000: 73 received between $9,999 and $5,000; 192 agencies collected between $4,999 and $1,000; and 82 got less than $1,000.
Corporate pool
Local corporate sponsors put up another $455,000, which is included in the total amount raised, but has not been calculated for individual nonprofits. The money will be pro-rated and serve as a match for each agency, which will receive the full amount Sept. 8.
She said it
"Every year it's really important," Erie Community Foundation CEO Karen Bilowith said. "We know that the nonprofits that participate really rely on Erie Gives to raise critical, often unrestricted dollars for their organization. So these are the flexible funds that allow them to continue to work toward their mission, cover infrastructure and even unanticipated expenses that arise through the year. And that's really important, especially because a lot of public funding, even some foundation funding, is more specific in terms of how it can be used.
"This year it's interesting because we've seen through our grant-making programs that organizations are coming out of the pandemic now and are going back to mission-related work, focusing less on responding and pivoting in different ways," Bilowith added.
Impact of inflation
But inflation, labor shortages and increased demand for services are hamstringing nonprofits at the same time.
"The short answer is every year these dollars are important, but I think this year they're even more so," Bilowith said.
How it started/how it's going
The 12-hour campaign allows people from the Erie community and well beyond to donate online, over the phone and in person by check to their preferred nonprofit agency. It's grown exponentially since the start.
In 2011, 2,770 donors helped raise $774,444 total. The campaign tends to raise that much or more each hour now.
Changes this year
The Erie Community Foundation this year began using the GiveGab platform for online donations and to help participating nonprofits market themselves to prospective donors. GiveGab specializes in these types of fundraising campaigns across the country and helped develop advertising templates that individual nonprofits could customize.
Also this year, the Erie Community Foundation worked closely with foundations in North East, Corry and Union City to coordinate campaigns for organizations in those respective communities.
Generosity
Both Fessler and Bilowith expressed their gratitude to the community.
"We say 'ready, set, give' and boy our community once again stepped up, which is just amazing and really speaks to what Erie is all about, as well as Corry, Union City and North East and everything that they did to increase the gifts in their communities," Fessler said.
"It truly is amazing that the entire community comes out in support of all of our nonprofits on Erie Gives Day," Bilowith said. "We know that many of the donors wait until this day to give. And it really is part of our mission to inspire, engage, and empower donors and communities. This is a great demonstration of the spirit of generosity that is alive and well in Erie."
Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com.
