By David Gordon, associate editor
Seventeen local nonprofit organizations were part of Tuesday’s online launch of an innovative fund-raising effort spearheaded by the Eau Claire Community Foundation (ECCF).
They are participating in the first of four crowd-funding campaigns set up by the ECCF to honor its upcoming 25th anniversary. That milestone will be celebrated on June 20, 2022, some six weeks after the close of the fourth crowd-funding period.
The ECCF will award bonus grants totaling $25,000 to the top fund-raising organizations in each cycle.
First ‘Grant Catalog’ will close July 28
“Create Culture,” the first ECCF online “Grant Catalog,” will remain live from Tuesday through July 28. It lists projects from the participating nonprofits that relate to such areas as visual and performing arts, literature and museums, according to the ECCF. Subsequent funding “Catalogs” are open to nonprofit groups with projects that deal with education and training, some aspect of “Green” activities and meeting people’s basic needs.
The crowdfunding software to be used in the four campaigns enables the public to donate directly to any participating organization, in support of its project. Sue Bornick, ECCF’s executive director, said the software has been used in various types of fund-raising campaigns elsewhere and was modified to fit the needs of the campaign here.
“We’ve done it in a different way” to create opportunities to support local nonprofits, Bornick said in a recent interview.
She said that a great deal of credit for the final product here goes to Rebecca White Body, a program specialist at ECCF who worked out many of the program’s details. She is the contact person for nonprofit organizations with questions about any of the four crowd-funding campaigns.
White Body noted that the ECCF typically gets about a dozen applications in the “Create Culture” category during its regular funding cycle, so the total of 17 for the crowd-funding effort is a positive development.
‘Bonus grants’ will be awarded
In addition to the contributions these organizations receive, all that raise $1,000 or more from online donations will be eligible for bonus grants from the ECCF. The top three organizations in each cycle will receive grants of $10,000, $7,000 and $5,000 and all others that clear the $1,000 threshold will be entered in a drawing for three $1,000 grants.
Bornick said the $100,000 total for these grants will come from the fund established by the 64 Society of Founders members who contributed more than $1 million to launch the ECCF in 1997.
The crowd-funding platform can be accessed now at https://eccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list/grant. The list of participating nonprofits includes six organizations whose names start with “Chippewa Valley” and five more that begin with “Eau Claire.”
[FULL DISCLOSURE NOTE: the CVPost is one of the 17 nonprofit organizations listed on that platform.]
Contributions during the first 10 days of the funding period will be announced on July 16. Final results will be announced on Aug. 10 and the bonus grants will be awarded then on Facebook Live.
The software used on the platform was developed by Foundant Technologies, located in Bozeman, MT. It will enable the ECCF to track and process donations (including any that involve contributions of appreciated stock) and to acknowledge all donations. The ECCF will notify each participating organization of its donors (unless they have requested anonymity) and will retain 5% of all donations to cover these and other administrative expenses.
Subsequent funding “Catalogs” are open to nonprofit groups with projects that deal with education and training, some aspect of “Green” activities and meeting basic needs. Application deadlines for the next online funding period is Sept. 3 for the “Form Futures” campaign.
The final two crowd-funding efforts have application deadlines of Jan. 10 and March 14, 2022. More information about the year-long effort, including a “toolkit” to guide nonprofit organizations in planning their participation, is available through the 25th anniversary page on the ECCF website.