Spring2ACTion Raises Over $100,000 for Alexandria Causes

Our friends at ACTion Alexandria held a fantastic, three-day city-wide fundraiser that raised more than $100,000 via the Mightycause platform (see press release). The fundraiser benefited causes within the city of Alexandria, VA.

“Spring2ACTion” raised $104,156 in donations and matching grants for 47 participating nonprofits. In all, 1265 citizens donated to the causes during SPRING2Action, almost one percent of Alexandria City’s 150,000 person population. The average donation was $59, and the frequency of donations increased each day of the initiative. Twenty five percent of the donations were $10.

Ace Nonrofit Blogger Beth Kanter wrote up the story earlier this morning, and said, “In April, the Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute published a new report called “Connected Citizens” that looks at the impact of networks on communities, and asks, what do these emerging networks mean for community change… And, with resources like “Like Minded” that facilitate the fast sharing of best practices, we’re bound to see more. [ACTion Alexandria] is one.”

Two lessons learned from the effort:

1) If a giving experience is extended over days, nonprofits adapt and become more savvy in their community outreach. Some nonprofits went from straight asks to fun contests. One nonprofit, Higher Achievement evolved their messaging from simple asks for support to asking people to ‘donate their lunch money’ on the second day of the event.” Giving increased over the three days of the contests (see above slides).

While GiveMN is a clear success and cities like Pittsburgh have successfully raised as much as $2 million, this is the first instance of a small city/location engaging in concentrated social fundraising. And clearly it was successful, a great piece of news for small towns and cities across America.