Giving Day challenge April 25

Posted 4/19/17

Residents across 32 counties in East Texas are invited to participate in the East Texas Giving Day to be held Tuesday, April 25. The 18-hour giving challenge, hosted by East Texas Communities …

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Giving Day challenge April 25

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Residents across 32 counties in East Texas are invited to participate in the East Texas Giving Day to be held Tuesday, April 25. The 18-hour giving challenge, hosted by East Texas Communities Foundation (ETCF), will begin at 6 a.m. and conclude at 11:59 p.m. online at www.EastTexasGivingDay.org.

The purpose of an area-wide Giving Day is to bring the region together on one day and as one community, enthusiastically raising money and awareness for East Texas nonprofits. This initiative, organized by ETCF, provides citizens across the 32-county service area an easy platform to support the mission of local nonprofits that serve as the backbone for many communities.

Profiles available for viewing will be at www.EastTexasGivingDay.org. On April 25 transactions will be securely processed through the Giving Day website and donors receive an immediate tax receipt via email at the conclusion of the donation process.

There have been 177 non-profits across East Texas have signed up to participate in this year’s event.

A new feature for the 2017 event is the ability for a donor to preschedule gifts to participating nonprofits. Pre-scheduled gifts opened to the public on Monday, April 10th. “The opportunity to preschedule gifts allows non-profits to start sharing in the ‘buzz’ related to giving day,” said Kyle Penney, ETCF president. “ETCF is offering a $1,000 bonus prize to the nonprofit with the most money raised through pre-scheduled gifts.”

Nonprofits have secured their own matching funds for the 18-hour event. “It is very rewarding for a regular contributor of a nonprofit to see his or her gift have an impact,” said Penney. “At last check, we had 45 non-profits that have secured matching funds totaling over $220,000.”

Participating nonprofits and donors can track donations pledged throughout the day April 25 in real-time by watching the leaderboard on the home page of the web site. The minimum donation that can be made is $20 with donations being accepted online during at www.EastTexasGivingDay.org. All transactions processed on Giving Day will incur approximately 5.03% in fees based on the costs of the Giving Day platform and actual credit card fees. Non-profits will receive funds approximately six-to-eight weeks after the conclusion of the event.

Ongoing updates about the event will be posted on ETCF’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SimplifiedGiving and the foundation’s website www.etcf.org.