Sep 11, 2014 4 min read

A small change to Washington County Community Foundation’s second annual “Day of Giving” helped to nearly double the amount of money raised during its 12-hour online fundraising drive compared to last year.

The WCCF “Gives” drive Wednesday garnered 1,462 donors who sent more than $534,000 to 108 area charities and organizations. Each of those will also receive a prorated portion of $100,000 from WCCF depending on how much money each group raised.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” WCCF president and CEO Betsie Trew said of the 2014 figures. “It was awesome.”

The same event last year raised $293,385 from about 1,000 donors, with an additional $100,000 from the WCCF that was divided between the charities.

The biggest change to the donation drive this year allowed people to send checks in addition to sending money using credit cards, which was the only payment method last year. Trew said they received feedback after last year’s drive that many people, including big-time donors and institutions, preferred writing checks. That spurred 10 separate donors who each sent $10,000 and one “institutional donor” who gave a total of $75,000 to several charities this year.

“Not only is this benefiting the charities, but it also benefits the donors because they can do all of their giving with one transaction,” Trew said.

Washington City Mission received both the highest number of donors with 140 and the most money raised with $50,301. That means it will receive an additional $9,557 from WCCF’s prorated pool of $100,000 that will be divided and given to all 108 participating charities. Each charity will receive nearly 20 cents in additional WCCF money per each dollar it raised during the “Gives” drive.

Sally Mounts, the City Mission’s director of development, praised the donation drive not only because of the amount of donations, but also because it raises awareness for various nonprofits and organizations.

“We were certainly very intentional in spreading the word about this very wonderful program.” Mounts said. “The truth is that an organization like WCCF raises the visibility for every nonprofit. We love participating because the Mission benefits, but we love how so many other organizations also benefit.”

Some of those other organizations were libraries, including two that suffered recently from funding cuts. Citizens Library raised more than $12,000 and Chartiers-Houston Community Library received more than $8,000. Friends of the Peters Township Public Library received the most out of the three with $12,672.

“Our community supports our libraries and we’re seeing (funding) reductions from different groups,” Trew said. “I’m not questioning why they’re doing that, but the community is responding with their dollars to say they want their money staying there to fund libraries.”

That sentiment was echoed by Kathy Pienkowski, the Citizens Library circulation services manager, who thanked the community for its support and said it showed that people still think libraries are important.

“We’ve been hearing so much about the demise of libraries, with the digital age and the Internet, that we’re obsolete,” Pienkowski said. “But that’s not the case. We provide other programs and resources. We fill a need, and it shows.”

Other notable charities included United Way of Central Washington County that received $35,165 and Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, which raised $33,727. Peters Township Education Foundation had 140 donors and raised $5,060.

Trew said they have already begun working on next year’s fundraising drive and are considering whether to reward groups by the number of people who donate in addition to the dollar figures. She said people can still go the www.WCCFgives.org website to find more information on local charities and learn how to donate or volunteer.

“Rarely does the whole county get behind one project, but donors love to give local,” Trew said.