June 23, 2011; Source: The Seattle Times | On Thursday, June 23rd from 7 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. the Seattle Foundation sponsored “Give Big”, a day of giving to promote community contributions to 1,000 local nonprofits. To sweeten the pot the foundation and some key donors committed $500,000 to match whatever was donated by the public, which appears to have been somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.5 million. Here are two of the many postings on the Foundation’s Facebook page:

  • Compass Housing Alliance Your GiveBIG donations on June 23rd really made a difference! We received 87 donations totaling $27,624! Thank you!! We’re still waiting to hear how much the donations will be stretched by The Seattle Foundation. Stay tuned!
  • FamilyWorks Seattle Thanks to The Seattle Foundation's GiveBIG campaign, for motivating people to donate over $4,700 to FamilyWorks Food Bank and Resource Center to help hungry families in North Seattle.

Four million dollars committed in a day. We think this is a refreshing model to involve a wider group of people a well-established community foundation.—Ruth McCambridge