Should charity go off like Election Day? The first such-and-such day of the month, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., cast your donation -- then sit back and wonder, what does my contribution really amount to?
This is decidedly not the way the Arkansas Community Foundation would frame its April 2 Arkansas Gives day, but the similarities remain.
Community Foundation director Heather Larkin and Sarah Kinser pitched the blitz Jan. 7 inside the rather indecorous ground-floor vestibule of the old Union Station train depot. I was there, along with Craig O'Neill and a couple other orbiting satellites and some two dozen nonprofit chiefs and veeps and peeps.
On April 2, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., the community foundation's website ArkansasGives.org will make donation by credit card as easy as buying a T-shirt from CafePress that reads Beets Don't Kale My Vibe.
Before that day, of course, more than 100 nonprofits (that number could grow to about 200 by Feb. 14, the cutoff) across the state will mobilize their top donors (and mewl for new ones) and remind them of Arkansas Gives day and direct them to ArkansasGives.org.
Donors will pick their favorite nonprofit or nonprofits from the final list -- from the Silas H. Hunt Community Development Corp. in Ashdown and Arms of Hope in Blytheville to the Marshallese Education Initiative in Fayetteville -- and make their donations with a credit card online. (If someone cannot or will not make a credit card transaction at the website, the community foundation will accept checks.)
"Man, the nonprofit sector really pulls together. I sent out one little email and y'all came out in force," said Sarah Kinser, the spokesman.
BIG POT OF MONEY
Sure, one little email -- with one whopping fundraising goal. Tightknit is our local confederation of fundraisers and event folks ... until there's a big pot of money. Then it's every leprechaun for himself.
Speaking of free agency, why doesn't the Community Foundation direct donors to the individual nonprofits' websites for a donation?
The chief reason is that this is their "thing." The Community Foundation's raison d'etre is brokering charity, whether it's financing fledgling nonprofits or directing individuals' end-of-life giving. In addition, Kinser hopes the digital trail of donations that day will be an education. They'll have some hard numbers -- and follow it up with surveys -- on how much giving, by whom, when and why.
A third reason is that it has prepared for Internet disaster. The Community Foundation will actually, for that day, move its operation over to the AT&T facilities in Riverdale, where it will have all the benefits of that network infrastructure and techs in the flesh should there be a crash.
Also -- and this may assuage our worst fears about the third-party brokering -- the community foundation will itself throw a quarter of a million into the pot. This will be a match for all the giving that day, so that if a quarter of a million dollars is raised, each dollar will be matched by the foundation. And not only that, but there's an additional $50,000 in prize money for nonprofits that perform best in their class.
"Some nonprofits, we expect, the only thing they're going to do is sign up and their name will just be on the drop-down list, but the ones that are going to be successful are the ones who will develop a whole plan around this," Larkin said, and the purse is the performance insurance.
The goal is to raise $1 million. When Larkin opened the news conference up for questions, my hand shot up. How did you arrive at $1 million?
"We wanted to shoot for the stars and maybe hit the moon," Larkin said, a bit too much like a pitchman. "That's what we do here -- set big goals and then go for it."
Actually, $1 million is kind of small, I thought. This is a state of nearly 3 million people, and we're talking about quite a concerted mobilization, with months to prepare. Some of the 100-plus nonprofits, like the Garland County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), have really small operating budgets and donor rolls, but others, say, the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas (which is wrapping up a capital campaign of between $7 million and $8 million) or Our House shelter, are huge.
It seems I'm mistaken. For one, the sheer number of nonprofits who've committed as of our press time would have to contribute about $8,500 each. In one day, that's a lot.
For another, I called a development director of a fairly large, local nonprofit -- one not on the confirmed list. One of the first things she asked is, "Are there hospitals or universities participating?" No, I said. "Yeah," she said, "it's a lot harder than it looks."
ALL ABOARD
The old Union Station has become something of a nonprofit arcade. There's Just Communities of Arkansas, Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Economics Arkansas and others. All are confirmed participants for Arkansas Gives.
But guess who isn't? Most of the nonprofits who have big fundraising galas and dedicated fundraising officers and staff. Folks like the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Arts Center, the American Heart Association, Women and Children First shelter, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and all of the big four hospital systems in the area.
"We're still considering signing up. There are pros and cons," says Fran Carter, chief fundraiser for The Rep. "It's great exposure for giving in our community, which the Arkansas Community Foundation does a great job of, and they have some matching dollars for giving. The downside of it is, we'd be sending our donors to a different organization to make a gift."
Imagine one Baptist church sending its flock over to another Baptist church for a special-occasion service at which a plate will be passed around. It happens. Not often, though.
Regular donors get pitched regularly and on a charity's own timeline. Institutions such as the local American Heart Association or Arkansas Children's Hospital have their calendar planned already -- what fundraising appeals go out when, event fundraisers, all the giving opportunities in a calendar year.
"We have a year-round, 365-days-a-year plan for working with our donors, adding new donors, making sure we have donors who love us and stay happy with being involved with The Rep. We want to make sure that adding a day like [this] fits into everything else we do," Carter said.
"For the most part, it's finite dollars out there," the other development director told me, meaning, potential donations don't swell exactly with each new campaign. An appeal April 2 may draw dollars that would have come later in the year, and the corollary holds as well: People may withhold donations during Arkansas Gives because they expect to pledge later.
"You may get a little extra from people, but I don't think it's gonna be huge dollars. It's more an awareness event, a branding thing, just like Giving Tuesday."
For more information, call (501) 372-1116, or ArkansasGives.org.
Direct your charitable comments toward
bampezzan@arkansasonline.com
High Profile on 01/18/2015