The Morgan Hill Community Foundation and the Gilroy Foundation—along with their many partnering organizations—stand to raise even more funds at the second annual Silicon Valley Gives charitable event in May 2015.
In the 2014 inaugural day of giving campaign, nonprofits from Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Benito counties raised $8 million for their multitude of causes. SVGives is hosted by the Silicon Valley Foundation, which announced earlier this week the second annual event will proceed.
“When we held the first SVGives, it was inspiring to see how generously the community responded,” said Emmett Carson, President of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. “We’re committing ourselves to hosting SVGives in 2015 and 2016, confident that we can help even more nonprofit organizations raise funds to improve people’s lives in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Benito counties.”
The second-annual event will be held all day May 5, 2015.
In the 2014 event, the Gilroy Foundation, which has awarded about $4 million to a diversity of causes over the last 30 years, received $31,835 in donations from 84 individual donors, according to Gilroy Foundation Executive Director Donna Pray. The Morgan Hill Community Foundation generated just under $6,500 in donations with more than half of those funds going to its partnering organizations.
The 24-hour, online fundraising event offers a single online donation platform, providing a simple way to connect donors to the charitable causes they care about and encourage them to take action. Each participating nonprofit registered on razoo.com—considered the world’s fastest-growing crowdfunding site for causes—and set up a webpage describing what their organization is all about, such as its programs and funds set up by partners, to attract as many donors as possible.
There were fun matching games and prizes throughout the all-day May 6, 2014 event offered by various sponsors in an effort to maximize donations.
Microsoft and NBC Bay Area are among the early sponsors of the SV Gives event, contributing leadership and technology to ensure the success of the fundraising effort, according to the Aug. 26 release from Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
“Silicon Valley Gives is a powerful example of how people can come together to make a positive difference in their communities,” said Dan’l Lewin, Corporate Vice President of Technology and Civic Engagement at Microsoft. “We hope to help surpass the funds raised last year and look forward to engaging citizens and nonprofits to make positive change here in the Bay Area.”
Microsoft representatives will host the first of multiple informational sessions for nonprofits about how they may optimize this fundraising opportunity. The first session is Oct. 27 in Mountain View.
For more information, visit www.svgives.org.
