Wow! You made so many donations to our annual Give!Guide that we’re just now finishing the tallies and making final deliveries of incentives.

Altogether, WW’ s 2007 Give!Guide produced more than $518,000 for 49 Portland-area nonprofits. That’s more than twice last year’s $228,000—and doesn’t include the in-kind contributions you made or the hours you volunteered along the way.

Here are some of this year’s special Give!Guide All Stars:

1. Readers , you top the list, as 3,001 of you made 6,654 donations, averaging $78 per donation and $173 per donor. Nearly half of you—1,486—are 35 or younger.

2. Next are the 49 nonprofits . Each of you did a wonderful job encouraging donations. Your hard work is infectious, and your feedback has been unstintingly positive.

3. The four $4,000 Skidmore Prize winners, whose awards kicked off this year’s effort—Wendi Anderson (The Giving Tree), Neal Armstrong (Community Cycling Center), Kayse Jama (Center for Intercultural Organizing) and Zan Gibbs (Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center).

4. The amazing team at OakTree Digital . Two years ago, we needed to improve Give!Guide’s web presence. You gave us a truly engaging and easy-to-use site. Over that time period, donations have jumped more than sixfold from $78,000 to $520,000, and you deserve a lot of the credit. In addition, CEO John Schmitt and his crew (that’s you, David, Allie, Jeremy and company) have done amazing behind-the-scenes work on Give!Guide’s back end.

5. Then, there’s the community involvement team at Momentum Market Intelligence . You gave Give!Guide its start back in 2004. In addition to funding the Skidmore Prize each year, MMI vets prize nominees and surveys the previous year’s donors and recipients to identify ways we can improve. Special thanks to Lisa Albrecht, Sanjit Kundu, Ben Kim-Gervey and their team.

6. Many fabulous local companies supported Give!Guide. The roster includes E&R Wine Shop; Davis Wright Tremaine; Stumptown Coffee; Tazo Tea; Rogue Ales; SmartPark; Comcast; Umpqua Bank; Portland Trail Blazers; Con-Way; the Oregon Community Foundation; Signature Graphics; Bishops Barbershop; Clear Creek Distillery; Journal Graphics; Thompson, Kessler Wiest&Borquist; Cirque du Soleil; Keen Footwear; the Oregon Cultural Trust; Vitaminwater; 360 Vodka; Music Millennium; Kiehl’s; the Amphitheater at Clark County; Flexcar (soon to be Zipcar); Cinema 21; Powell’s Books; Dragontree Holistic Day Spa; Mio Gelato; River City Bikes; Bar Carlo; Hammy’s Pizza; and the Portland City Club.

7. Last but not least is the gang here at Willamette Week. Dozens supported this effort, and two, Dan Winters and Kendra Clune, earn special mention.

Thanks again for this fabulous effort. Let’s plan to meet here again next fall.

Richard H. Meeker
Publisher

Here are the nonprofits and the total donation each received

Oregon Cultural Trust: $48,487.00
Planned Parenthood: $36,037.00
Feral Cat Coalition: $31,750.50
Growing Gardens: $25,381.00
Portland Habitat for Humanity: $23,555.00
Sisters of the Road: $22,623.00
Community Cycling Center: $20,434.00
Bark: $19,934.01
NxNE Community Health Center: $19,069.00
Bicycle Transportation Alliance: $16,018.25
DoveLewis: $13,214.00
Northwest Academy: $12,303.00
Cat Adoption Team: $12,052.50
Grant High School Foundation: $12,049.00
Outside In: $11,848.00
SMART: $11,681.25
Bus Project: $12,031.66
Oregon Wild: $10,687.00
Wallace Medical Concern: $10,666.00
Big Brothers Big Sisters: $9,909.00
Friends of Trees: $9,783.00
p:ear: $8,484.00
Friends of the Children: $8,393.00
Write Around Portland: $7,815.00
Bikes to Rwanda: $7,642.00
Community Warehouse: $6,705.00
SCRAP: $6,394.00
Portland Animal Welfare Team: $6,287.50
Urban Gleaners: $6,226.00
Literary Arts: $5,590.00
Thomas Edison High School: $5,440.00
Pixie Project: $5,274.00
Center for Intercultural Organizing: $4,718.00
SMYRC: $4,661.00
The Giving Tree: $4,682.00
Children’s Relief Nursery: $4,041.00
Chess for Success: $3,936.00
Ecotrust: $3,833.00
Schoolhouse Supplies: $3,674.00
ReBuilding Center: $3,382.00
Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility: $3,360.00
New Avenues for Youth: $2,907.00
Third Rail Theatre: $2,607.00
Higher Stages: $2,420.00
Portland Art Center: $2,380.00
Bitch magazine: $2,177.00
Q Center: $2,131.00
RideOn: $1,850.00
Living Yoga: $1,561.00
Grand Total: $518,083.67