PHOTO COURTESY VICTORIA KENT
CFES Program Director Heather Mahler, left, gives a $1,000 check to Verena Chase, Coast Kids program director of Assateague Coastal Trust, during last year’s Shore Gives More event.
By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer
(Nov. 22, 2018) Nearly 100 nonprofits and charities on the Lower Shore will participate in the fourth annual Shore Gives More event, a 24-hour online donation campaign starting on Nov. 27.
The campaign is hosted locally by the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and assists nonprofits serving Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester counties.
The Community Foundation carefully vets each participating organization to ensure current tax-exempt status and service to the Lower Shore area, and an online donation portal offers an easy way for donors to quickly learn about individual nonprofits and make as many or as few donations as they like in one easy, online checkout.
Nonprofits are given access to online fundraising platforms, marketing campaigns and incentive prizes. The Community Foundation provides the services at no cost to the nonprofits, while nonprofits cover standard credit card processing fees.
“Shore Gives More is the localized campaign of Giving Tuesday,” Victoria Kent, Community Foundation marketing director, said. “Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. We’ve got Black Friday, Shop Local Saturday and Cyber Monday, and then after all this buying and getting, getting and getting, we have this day of giving. You have opportunity to really showcase our area’s nonprofits.”
Last year, 80 nonprofits participated and about $164,000 was raised overall. That number is substantially larger than the amount raised during the inaugural event in 2015.
“The campaign has grown greatly in just four years,” Community Foundation President Erica Joseph said in a press release. “In 2015, the local campaign started with 23 nonprofits and raised just under $7,500, but by 2017 it grew to $164,000 raised for 80 area nonprofits in a single day. The generosity of our local community is what enables area nonprofits to increase their impact on the Lower Eastern Shore.”
“We were thrilled with the results,” Kent said. “It just shows you people really care about their local community in this area. It showed the heart that people have and what can really happen when [people] come together in our local community.”
Some of the charities and nonprofits participating in the Shore Gives More campaign includes The Art League of Ocean City, Assateague Coastal Trust, Atlantic General Hospital, The CRICKET Center, Ocean City Development Corporation, Ocean City Life Saving Station Museum and the Worcester County Education Foundation.
“Basically, it’s like shopping for clothes online except for nonprofits or charities,” Kent said. “There’s a little shopping cart feature, and you can go in and browse the different nonprofits and read what they do and what they’re fundraising for. It’s all there in one convenient checkout, except this one is charitable.”
Software purchased by the Community Foundation allows donors to schedule their gifts in advance of the event and allows supporters the option of donating to multiple nonprofits at once.
“It’s a great way to teach kids about philanthropy, because you can sit down as a family and go through the different nonprofits and look at all the different ways there are to serve the community and giving, and talk about why it’s so important instilling philanthropy as a family from a young age,” Kent said.
“The origin of philanthropy … the meaning of it is ‘love of humanity,’” she continued. “You see that so much down in this area. We’re lucky too that there’s nonprofits … that work together in the lower shore and there’s nonprofits that work in a smaller geographic area. This is capacity building for nonprofits … it is amazing to see how they come together, work together and see each other learn and grow.”
For more information or to participate early in the Shore Gives More Online Giving Tuesday campaign, visit shoregivesmore.org.