Nonprofits reach $43K in donations

Published 12:05 pm Monday, December 4, 2017

In the first week of the GoodGiving Guide Challenge, Clark County nonprofits have raised more than $43,000 in donations.

Through the annual online giving campaign, 18 local nonprofits and 120 from central Kentucky will have just more than a month to garner donations. The challenge began Nov. 28 and ends Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m.

Now in its seventh year, the challenge is a partnership between Blue Grass Community Foundation and Smiley Pete Publishing.

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Donations are accepted online at bggives.org, where nonprofit profiles are available and donations are tracked throughout the challenge.

As of Sunday at 7 p.m. Clark County nonprofits had raised $43,570 collectively, landing some local nonprofits on the challenge-wide leaderboard.

Donations for participating Clark County nonprofits were:

— Bluegrass Community and Technical College Winchester-Clark County campus: $4.047

— Partners in Education: $8,216

— Rowland Arts Center: $468

— Habitat for Humanity of Madison and Clark Counties: $1,790

— STRIDE: $3,464

— St. Agatha Academy: $4,022

— Clark County Community Services: $4,747

— Holly Rood: $604

— Winchester-Clark County Farmers’ Market: $282

— Clark County Homeless Coalition: $3,617

— New Beginnings of Winchester: $3,602

— Leeds Center for the Arts: $2,386

— Hospice East: $100

— Rose Mary C. Brooks Place: $3,506

— L.I.F.E. for Pets: $624

— Friends of Hemp: $109

— Bluegrass Heritage Museum: $1,940

— Winchester Youth Soccer League: $46.

Partners in Education remained in the leaderboard for most of the first week of the challenge and held onto a spot, landing at fourth by Sunday night.

Narrowly missing the top 10 were Clark County Community Services at 13th, Bluegrass Community and Technical College at 16th and St. Agatha Academy at 18th.

Overall, the 120 participating organizations had raised more than $230,000 as of Sunday evening.

Last year, Clark County nonprofits raised more than $215,000 collectively through the challenge, approximately $60,000 more than was raised in 2015. A dozen local organizations participated in the 2016 challenge.

This year, the Clark County Community Foundation will once again provide a dollar-for-dollar match ups to $10,000 for each participating non-profit.

Since 2011, the GoodGiving Challenge has raised more than $7 million for area charities.

In addition to receiving contributions from donors, nonprofits will also have the opportunity to compete for $5,000 endowment prizes made possible by BGCF and other donors.

Clark County nonprofits will kickoff the challenge with the second annual GoodGiving Challenge Chili Cook-off presented by the Clark County Community Foundation.

The cook-off will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the Clark County Extension Office. It is free for visitors, who also receive $1 to donate to the nonprofit of their choice.

Nonprofits will be paired with local restaurants to prepare chili, which will be voted on by guests. First-, second- and third-place nonprofits will will prizes of $250, $100 and $50, respectively. For more information about the cook-off, contact Halee Cunningham at halee@bgcf.org.

To learn about area nonprofits or donate, visit bggives.org.

About Whitney Leggett

Whitney Leggett is managing editor of The Winchester Sun and Winchester Living magazine. To contact her, email whitney.leggett@winchestersun.com or call 859-759-0049.

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