A Message from Amy Little, CEO

Idaho Gives started yesterday, April 23, and will last for two weeks. It is an unprecedented change for an unprecedented time.  Now more than ever we can leverage Idaho Gives as an opportunity over these next two weeks to highlight your work, share your impact and most importantly of all raise as much money as we can for as many participating nonprofits as we can.

Not only do we have a record number of participating nonprofits, we have the best local media partners who have gone above and beyond in getting the word out about Idaho Gives this year.  We have provided dozens of Idaho Gives webinars to help our nonprofits prepare and we have lined up some of the best prizes for Award Pool Funds once again.

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As many of you know we raised over $1.95 million in 2019, pushing our total of funds raised over $8.3 million in the 7 years we’ve hosted this campaign.  We love raising a lot of money for our nonprofit friends, but beyond that we love bringing NEW donors into the campaign and to you, our participating nonprofits.

We did not set a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of raising $2 million this year, instead we set a donor retention and new donor acquisition goal.  We believe that as we bring new donors to the event we’ll stretch far beyond our monetary goals for you.  

Our entire campaign has been designed for donor engagement.  To put things in perspective, there are 1.2 million adults in Idaho (as of the last Census count, which reminds me, have you completed your census information yet?) and if each one of us donated just $10 to one nonprofit, we could raise $12 million.  I know not every Idahoan has $10 to give, which is also one of the most important reasons for Idaho Gives this year: it is our collective opportunity to help the helpers.

Even if you did not register for Idaho Gives this year as a nonprofit, we hope you’ll consider signing on and making at least one $10 gift to a local nonprofit that you know, love, collaborate with or that needs you to help.  

Then, tell a friend or two or three about Idaho Gives.  Share on social media, email your contacts, consider setting up a peer to peer fundraiser for your (or a favorite) nonprofit.  Help connect with others in your community to help spread the word.  We need your help in connecting with every single Idahoan that has the capacity to make even just one $10 gift.  

Help us ensure that every nonprofit participating this year walks away with critically needed funding to sustain their operations during these challenging times.  You know the work we all do in our communities, we feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, care for those who can’t care for themselves, provide and enhance our quality of life through arts, humanities, education and health/fitness and so very much more.  

Throughout the past several weeks I’ve asked myself several times “what our communities would look like during this pandemic without the entire nonprofit sector right there on the front lines doing what we do best?”  I cannot picture it and I don’t want to think about it.  Let’s go all in over the next two weeks to make sure that we don’t have to.