Give!Guide 2014 Results

Wow, WW readers, you just blew the socks (and the shoes, pants and shirt) off the goals we set for our 2014 Give!Guide. 

We had hoped as many as 7,500 of you would give as much as $2.6 million to 136 local nonprofits (and the Oregon Cultural Trust) between the day this all kicked off—Nov. 5—and midnight New Year's Eve.

Instead, to our great joy and astonishment, 10,277 of you gave $3,145,015. Whatever the superlative of amazing is, you are it! 

I cannot imagine what this place would be like without you, without so many generous local companies, and without our truly incredible nonprofit community. It just wouldn't be…Portland.

The flood of warm, supportive emails and letters we receive shows your true colors. My favorite went like this:

"Our children joined my wife and me last night—as we do each year—to work our way through the easily navigable Give!Guide website to choose among a bunch of worthy organizations. The choices are always tough, but our kids look forward to this each year as they decide where their donations should go, followed by my wife and me matching their donations with our choices. Thanks again for helping families like ours inculcate early on in our children the value of giving."

Along with so much generous correspondence, we've also assembled an array of tantalizing analytics. 

1. Fully 54 percent (5,583) of you are new this year. That has been underscored by letters and emails from development directors noting how this year’s G!G brought them a wealth of new donors.

1. 3,043 (29 percent) of you are 35 or under. That’s a 47.7 percent increase from last year—and is likely attributable to the incredible generosity of McMenamins, whose eponymous Challenge provided $1,000 apiece to the nonprofits garnering the greatest number of donations by the under-36 crowd in each category. The winners: Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank, PDX Pop Now!, Street Roots, Right Brain Initiative, Friends of Trees, Growing Gardens, Raphael House, and New Avenues for Youth.

1. On the final day, the G!G website processed donations at the rate of nearly one per second—they zipped across the giveguide.org screen like reports from a stock exchange. Huge thanks to Grady Britton (especially master coder Joey Yax) for making significant improvements to the G!G site this year.

1. Southeast Portland has finally overtaken Northeast in terms of total donations. Northeast led all 10 years of G!G’s first decade.

1. Big Give! Days brought in over $713,000. For them, we thank Powell’s City of Books; the Timbers, Thorns, and Trail Blazers; Salt & Straw; Bike Gallery; and Rogue Ales & Spirits.

1. Other giving statistics, as well as names of sponsors and business partners, can be found at giveguide.org.

1.  Thanks to your example, we have helped jumpstart Give!Guides in other parts of the country—Colorado Springs, Monterey, Napa Valley, and the Triangle of North Carolina. You have shown how effective this form of giving can be, and we hope to help create similar efforts in one or two additional communities in 2015.

There are way too many people and organizations to thank for G!G's success, but I have to give a special shout-out to the team at WW: Chris Petryszak, Iris Meyers, Brent Walth, Steph Barnhart, Sam Cusumano, Jane Smith, Mark Zusman—and, especially, our indomitable executive director, Nick Johnson.

WW's Give!Guide will be back in November. We have a house rule that at least 30 percent of the participating nonprofits be new each year. So if you know any local nonprofit you'd like to see participating, send their name and a contact person to Nick (njohnson@wweek.com). We will be accepting applications in June at giveguide.org.

There is a fundamental principle behind all of this, inscribed on the Skidmore Fountain in Old Town: "Good citizens are the riches of a city." You are those citizens, and Portland is fortunate to have so many of you playing an active part in her life.

Thank you,

Richard H. Meeker

PUBLISHER

P.S. This week and next WW is publishing a Volunteer Guide.  Its purpose is to help guide you to give something in addition to your hard-earned cash to local nonprofits. Your sweat equity is just as valuable. 

Results, by Participating Nonprofit

1000 Friends of Oregon $39,135

4 Worlds United Soccer Alliance $3,337

AC Portland $2,995

Adelante Mujeres $17,610

Adventures Without Limits $5,174

Artichoke Community Music $4,831

Audubon Society of Portland $40,335

Baby Blues Connection $8,840

Bicycle Transportation Alliance $41,902

Big Brothers Big Sisters $6,103

Bradley Angle $22,250

BRAVO Youth Orchestras $7,770

CASA for Children $22,461

Cat Adoption Team $47,690

Central City Concern $33,540

The Children's Book Bank $19,504

Classroom Law Project $22,329

CoHo Productions $9,319

Columbia Riverkeeper $14,796

Community Cycling Center $67,946

Community Warehouse $23,937

Crag Law Center $13,841

The Dental Foundation of Oregon $13,892

Depave $15,580

Disjecta Contemporary Art Center $4,981

Donate Life Northwest $4,050

The Dougy Center $10,610

Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors $12,570

Ethos,Inc. $10,040

Family Dogs New Life Shelter $13,225

Farmers Ending Hunger $10,621

Farmers Market Fund $6,889

FearNoMusic $5,333

Fences For Fido $14,410

Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon $42,495

The Forest Park Conservancy $31,043

Friends of Family Farmers $4,950

Friends of Outdoor School $28,431

Friends of the Children - Portland $20,068

Friends of the Columbia Gorge $74,281

Friends of Trees $25,574

Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest $9,365

Growing Gardens $22,815

Habitat for Humanity-Metro East $59,953

Hacienda CDC $8,195

Harper's Playground $10,505

Hells Canyon Preservation Council $14,446

HomePlate Youth Services $13,430

Hoyt Arboretum Friends $11,170

Human Solutions $20,415

"I Have a Dream" Oregon $18,901

IRCO $9,399

ImpactNW $16,685

IPRC $13,380

John Callahan Memorial $5,345

JOIN $43,791

Late Night Library $3,860

The Library Foundation $38,014

LiteraryArts $18,120

Live Wire Radio $8,054

Living Yoga $7,547

Marathon Scholars $6,842

Meals on Wheels People $45,160

Mercy Corps Northwest $59,179

Miracle Theatre Group $7,340

Museum of Contemporary Craft $9,690

My Voice Music $17,250

Neighborhood House $31,804

New Avenues for Youth $23,344

NE X NE Community Health Center $36,916

Northeast Emergency Food Program $11,210

Northwest Mothers Milk Bank $18,100

On-the-Move Community Integration $8,415

Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center $7,883

Operation Nightwatch $21,691

Oregon Cultural Trust $295,680

Oregon Food Bank $133,301

Oregon Humane Society $45,021

Oregon Humanities $8,174

OLCV Education Fund $11,348

Oregon Museum of Science & Industry $21,046 

Oregon TradeswomenInc. $16,507

Oregon Walks $6,975

Oregon Wild $23,837

OutsideIn $33,696

p:ear $39,152

Partnership for Safety and Justice $11,252

PAW (Portland Animal Welfare) Team $23,700

PDX Pop Now! $15,000

Pendulum AerialArts $2,625

PHAME $5,018

Planned Parenthood  $131,980

PlayWrite,Inc. $9,610

Polaris Dance Theatre $2,213

The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank $151,573

Portland Fruit Tree Project $21,443

Portland Gay Men's Chorus $5,718

Portland Homeless Family Solutions $23,920

The Portland Kitchen $8,610

Portland Playhouse $11,590

Portland Tool Libraries  $6,635

Portland Women's Crisis Line (PWCL) $21,004

Portland YouthBuilders $28,605

Potluck in the Park $13,250

Pride Foundation $2,767

Project POOCH,Inc. $21,730

Raphael House of Portland $32,443

REACH Community Development $9,981

Restore Oregon $3,803

Returning Veterans Project $15,393

The Right Brain Initiative $19,912

Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls $10,820

Rose Haven $13,399

Schoolhouse Supplies $16,180

SCRAP $7,339

The Shadow Project $20,733

Sisters Of The Road $58,158

SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) $25,554

Southwest Community Health Center $10,080

Staged! Musical Theatre $5,257

Street Roots $33,987

Tavern Books $3,564

The Tucker-Maxon School $9,721

Transition Projects $28,850

Urban Gleaners $26,795

Vibe of Portland $16,315

Village Gardens, Janus Youth Programs $6,336

Virginia Garcia Foundation $19,033

Volunteers of America $5,765

Voz Workers' Rights Education Project $5,404

Wallace Medical Concern $23,835 

West Women's and Children's Shelter $14,233

WhiteBird $5,526

Willamette Riverkeeper $14,745

Write Around Portland $13,466

XRAY.fm $19,544

Young Audiences $7,142

TOTAL: $3,145,015

WWeek 2015