GoodGiving Challenge wraps with $470,000 in donations

The ninth annual GoodGiving Challenge garnered more than $470,000 in donations for Clark County nonprofits.

Halee Cunningham, gift planning officer and deputy counsel with the Blue Grass Community Foundation, said the STRIDE program led the leaderboard in donations received, with the Clark County Homeless Coalition and Bluegrass Heritage Museum behind it.

The GoodGiving challenge is a partnership between Blue Grass Community Foundation and Smiley Pete Publishing and has raised $10 million for charities since 2011.

“We had 14 of the 23 nonprofits that fully met their $10,000 match,” Cunningham said. “Right now, we are still calculating the numbers and waiting on credit cards to be fully processed. It looks like we have exceeded $470,000 for all of the Clark County nonprofits, and that includes the Clark County Community Foundation match and other matches.”

Clark County nonprofits wrapped up the GoodGiving Challenge with the fourth annual GoodGiving Challenge Chili Cook-off Monday.

Hundreds of attendees sampled chili during the cook-off, which was presented by the Clark County Community Foundation at the College Park Gym.

Attendees also had the chance to vote on a first-, second- and third-place nonprofit.

The first-place winner was the Bluegrass Heritage Museum, who partnered with Team Mitchell Catering. They received $250. Second place was Achieving Recovery Together, who partnered with Hickman Street Grocery and received $100, and third place went to Winchester Youth Soccer League, who partnered with Loma’s at the Opera House and received $50.

Attendees also gave more than $250 via the tokens to the participating nonprofits.

Each of the 23 nonprofits participating in the online challenge received donations all week.

According to bggives.org, participating nonprofits received the following approximate donations (not including match totals):

— Achieving Recovery Together: $7,585, receiving 43 unique donations

— Bluegrass Community and Technical College Winchester-Clark County Campus: $12,318, receiving 31 unique donations

— Partners in Education: $10,452, receiving 35 unique donations

— Clark County Homeless Coalition: $23,832, receiving about 107 unique donations

— Clark County Community Services: $15,237, receiving about 68 unique donations

— Habitat for Humanity of Madison and Clark Counties: $11,217, receiving 49 unique donations

— St. Agatha Academy: $14,646, receiving 49 unique donations

— Leeds Center for the Arts: $17,821, receiving 122 unique donations

— Rose Mary C. Brooks Place: $10,285, receiving 35 unique donations

— LIFE for Pets: $10,746, receiving 36 unique donations

— STRIDE: $44,300, receiving about 158 unique donations

— Hospice East: $4,482, receiving 22 unique donations

— Bluegrass Heritage Museum: $20,014, receiving 94 unique donations

— Friends of Hemp: $10,802, receiving 26 unique donations

— Friends of the Clark County Animal Shelter: $10,528, receiving 60 unique donations

— Rowland Arts Center: $7,003, receiving 28 unique donations

— Holly Rood: $4,355, receiving 37 unique donations

— New Beginnings of Winchester: $14,774, receiving 65 unique donations

— Winchester Youth Soccer League: $4,380, receiving 18 unique donations

— Winchester-Clark County Farmers’ Market: $3,012, receiving 32 unique donations

— Swimchester Sailfish: $6,135, receiving 44 unique donations

— Lady Veterans Connect: $3,758, receiving 33 unique donations

— Legacy Greenscapes: $3,384, receiving 24 unique donations.

According to bggives.org, The STRIDE Program was also second in the top 10 leaderboard of amount of donations received overall for the 131 participating organizations.

“STRIDE led for Clark County, definitely led there with more than $44,000 in donations,” Cunningham said.

The Clark County Community Foundation will release a complete list of totals, including matching funds in the coming days, Cunningham said.

“We’ll have the final numbers in the next couple days or so,” she said.

The foundation will host its check presentation ceremony in January. Overall, Cunningham said the foundation is thankful for everyone who participated.

“We are always very appreciative of how charitable Clark County is,” she said. “… We’re very excited this has been another record-breaking year for us.”

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