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Cumberland Community Foundation raises roughly $1.8M in Giving Tuesday campaign

Overall, nearly $2.4M was raised for local nonprofits, the foundation says

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The Cumberland Community Foundation raised approximately $1.8 million in this year’s Giving Tuesday campaign. Coupled with the $575,000 local match, that means nearly $2.4 million was raised for nonprofits in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

 “It’s a very generous community,’’ said Mary Holmes, the president and chief executive officer of the Cumberland Community Foundation. “We may not be the wealthiest community, but I’m sure we’re the most generous.”

 This was the third year that the foundation has participated in the Giving Tuesday campaign and overseen the donations from Cumberland County.

 Seventy-six nonprofits participated this year compared with 65 last year, Holmes said. The money was raised over 10 days, she said.

 Holmes said the financial gifts ranged in size from $10 to $100,000.

 “Two anonymous donors gave us $100,000,” she said. 

 “Most of the gifts were $100,’’ she said. “We’re very proud of that. Our goal is to help people who have any ability to give to support these charitable organizations.”

 Overall, Holmes said, 3,885 gifts were received from more than 2,000 donors of the different organizations.

 “Our campaign is only for our grantees who decided to participate,” said Holmes. “So, that was 76 charitable organizations that decided to participate. So, we’re fundraising just for those organizations.”

 In terms of individual organizations, Cape Fear Regional Theatre received the most money, said Holmes, who declined to divulge the amount.

 Other organizations that ranked high in receiving donations included the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, the Fayetteville Police Foundation, the CARE Clinic and the N.C. History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction. The CityView News Fund also participated this year.

 According to the foundation, the family of Eleanor and Raymond Manning, the Fayetteville Area New Car Dealers Association, Elizabeth M. “Beth” Keeney, Ramon Yarborough, the Cumberland Community Foundation, board alumni and an anonymous donor joined together to offer the cumulative $575,000 to match the gifts throughout the campaign.

 The matching funds amplify the original donation.

 Giving Tuesday — which is often referred to as a global day of generosity — was held from 9 a.m. Nov. 21 through 5 p.m. Nov. 30. The donations will be directed toward “a local nonprofit working to improve Fayetteville and Cumberland County for those who live here,” the foundation states.

 The foundation puts out a catalog featuring the nonprofit organizations participating in the campaign.

 “We run the campaign over a 10-day window,” Holmes said. “If you think about it, we have so many charitable organizations here in this community doing fabulous work that really don’t have any fundraising staff. And the Community Foundation is really good at raising money, and so why wouldn’t we use that skill to help these smaller organizations support their work?

 “We have a really good relationship with donors,” she said, “and so this is a good role for the Community Foundation.”

 The local campaign has seen donations grow each year.

 In 2020, the campaign raised more than $872,000. A match of $300,000 brought the total to more than $1.17 million, Holmes said.

 In 2021, nearly $1.25 million was raised before the match of $400,000 was added for a total of more than $1.65 million, she said.

Giving Tuesday dates back to 2012 with the mission to help organizations raise money, Holmes said. The Cumberland Community Foundation determined in 2020 that no one was involved locally in the Giving Tuesday campaign.

The foundation changed that.

“We realized that local charities were not participating in an international effort to increase giving," Holmes said, "so we decided to create an online giving catalog on our website and invite nonprofit organizations to participate."

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Michael Futch covers Fayetteville and education for CityView. He can be reached at mfutch@cityviewnc.com.

 

Fayetteville, Cumberland County, Cumberland Community Foundation, Giving Tuesday, nonprofits

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