SARASOTA – Mark your calendars planning for the 2022 Giving Challenge is in full swing.
“It really showed how this community had such great capacity to care for one another and I think it was part of a healing process,” said Roxie Jerde.
The 2020 Giving Challenge shattered expectations. In a year plagued by the COVID-19 virus Jerde, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, says foundation saw record breaking participation.
Outperforming the previous six challenges, the 2020 Giving Challenge brought together nearly 59,000 donors to raise $19.1 million for 686 nonprofit organizations serving the Suncoast.
“It really allowed our nonprofit partners to put their energies into this fund raising opportunity particularly as events where getting canceled right and left,” said Jerde.
The Giving Challenge allowed for organization to make up for lost revenue in a year of uncertainty Jerde says. But it wasn’t just donors the nonprofits had to thank for donations.
The Patterson Foundation matched upwards of $100 for each donation made. Ultimately donating a total of more than $7.5 million.
“The courage of their board and that foundation – when you use that word unlimited you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Jerde.
Organizations near and far from Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties were represented in 2020. Jerde says she hopes for 2022 challenge to be even bigger and her team is already planning for the big day.
“It’s a way, again, to unify and bring people together for causes they care about,” she said.
Jerde says the foundation looks to grow from the success they had this year by incorporating a virtual fund raising option. The next Giving Challenge will be held from noon to noon on April 26 and 27, 2022.
Since 2012, the Giving Challenge has provided more than $58 million in unrestricted funding through the 24-hour challenges.
