MANSFIELD — Richland County Foundation President Allie Watson said she was already “blown away” when she opened the Richland Gives web page Tuesday morning.
“I could already tell it was going to be a huge year,” Watson said at Tuesday’s results watch party at the Mid-Ohio Conference Center.
The Richland County Foundation again broke its record for Richland Gives on Tuesday.
Since 2015, it has raised more than $3.7 million for local nonprofits.
More than 1,600 individual donors helped raise $804,938 during the two-week-long donation drive — a 56% increase from last year’s $514,000 total.
Richland Gives was founded in 2015 as a way for local nonprofits to accept online donations.
Maura Teynor, chief advancement officer for the Richland County Foundation said 65 nonprofits participated in the first Richland Gives ten years ago.
“We wanted to answer the question ‘What impact could we make if we all gave on the same day?’” Teynor said.
“We host Richland Gives to build capacity, grow philanthropy and make our community stronger. We’re approaching $4 million raised for area nonprofits, which I cannot believe.”
Richland Gives is designed to encourage people to contribute to local nonprofits they care about through a single giving website. It allows local organizations to raise funds and awareness, as well as cultivate new donors and reinvigorate lapsed donors.
Watson credited Teynor with the execution of the online giving event.
“The public sees Richland Gives for two weeks, but months and months of preparation goes into it. Without Maura, it doesn’t happen,” she said.
Board chair: ‘This is truly outstanding’
Chris Hiner, chairman of the Richland County Foundation board of trustees, thanked all of the donors and nonprofits involved on Tuesday.
“On behalf of all of us at the Richland County Foundation, this is truly outstanding,” he said. “What an amazing, generous community. And for the nonprofits, thank you for telling your story and for investing in our community.
“You don’t get ($800,000) without outstanding work and helping people who need it.”
The Richland County Foundation board voted to cover 4% platform fees this year, offering lower donation costs for people donating by credit card.
Teynor said there were 36 peer-to-peer fundraisers this year, which are associated with a nonprofit but set up by friends or family.
Discovery School had multiple peer-to-peer pages set up as student read-a-thons. The top three fundraising students earn prizes, and students who raised any amount are invited to a pancake breakfast.
“Engaging our student body has been really successful for us,” said head of school Simon Clark. “The kids get excited. Their family members and friends donate to them, which helps the school.
“We passed our goal of $65,000, which goes toward the STEM lab, keeping a good student-to-teacher ratio and making sure we have the best school we can.”
Peer-to-peer pages that raised at least $250 were entered into a random pull prize to match their total raised. “Omari’s Wolfpack Read-A-Thon,” a page created by Miriam Mandour for Discovery School, will add $760 to Discovery School’s total dollars raised.
This was also the first year of branded giving pages open to local businesses to highlight specific nonprofits, or lead their customers to the general Richland Gives page. Destination Mansfield, the Phoenix Brewing Company and Hamilton Insurance Group set up special pages.
The 2024 grand total includes more than $80,000 of matching grant prizes for leaderboard and prize winners. Ninety-nine nonprofits participated in this year’s drive.
The foundation offered $7,500 worth of matching grants to twelve nonprofits with the most dollars and donors raised during “golden ticket hours.”
Those winners were Time for a Change Diaper Bank, Visual Bucket List Foundation, 4 Leaf Rover, Lucas Community Center, Ohio Bird Sanctuary, Renaissance Performing Arts, St. Peter’s School, The Friendly House, Richland Pregnancy Services, Discovery School and Taking Root Farms.
Other grant-winning organizations were the Starfish Project of Richland County, North Central State College Foundation, North Central Ohio Land Conservancy Inc, The Mansfield Art Center, The New Store – Richland County Children’s Auxiliary, Humane Society of Richland County, North End Community Improvement Collaborative, Richland Academy of the Arts, Ohio State Mansfield Student Emergency Fund, Richland Pregnancy Services, United Way of Richland County, Changeup Charity Inc, the Nuhop Center for Experiential Learning and the Domestic Violence Shelter.
A new $500 matching fund for the “fab freshman” was awarded to the nonprofit participating in its first year with Richland Gives that raised the most funds. This year’s fab freshman was the Music Academy of Karate and Empowerment.
The Friendly House earns ‘best page’ award
Employees from MightyCause, the fundraising platform Richland Gives uses, also chose the best-looking page, which was awarded to The Friendly House this year. The foundation will award the nonprofit a $1,000 grant for the accomplishment.
Greg Mead, assistant director of The Friendly House, thanked donors and supporters.
“The Friendly House has been around for about 130 years, and we continue to support families and kids in the community through after-school programs, daycare, swim lessons and of course, summer camp programs,” he said.
“With aging facilities, it requires a lot of extra funds to keep those up. We appreciate everything the foundation does and all the nonprofits in town — everything we do is to support families and kids in the community.”
Small, medium and large nonprofits with the most total donors and dollars raised in their categories also received grant prizes. Each winner was awarded $5,000 for first place, $3,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place.
Some nonprofits placed on both leaderboards, but rules state they can only win matches for one. Teynor said the foundation reviews the results to determine how each nonprofit can earn the most grant matches possible.
Total money raised can be viewed on richlandgives.org. People can also continue to donate to the various nonprofits after the Richland Gives campaign ends.
The final results of leaderboard prize winners were:
Small nonprofits — most donors:
1 Visual Bucket List Foundation
2 Mansfield Noon Optimist Club
3 Mansfield Rotary Club
Small nonprofits — most dollars:
1 Taking Root Farms
2 Time for a Change Diaper Bank
3 Oak Hill Cottage
Medium nonprofits — most donors:
1 Humane Society of Richland County
2 North Central Ohio Land Conservancy
3 Habitat for Humanity or Richland and Crawford Counties
Medium nonprofits — most dollars:
1 Ohio Bird Sanctuary
2 Lucas Community Center
3 North Central State College Foundation
Large nonprofits — most donors:
1 St. Peter’s School
2 Richland Pregnancy Services
3 North End Community Improvement Collaborative
Large nonprofits — most dollars:
1 Discovery School
2 Friendly House
3 Mansfield Art Center
