Give Ozarks 2016 raised a final total of $1,183,295 for about 220 nonprofit agencies in 70 communities throughout the region, including locally.
This final total reflects online gifts, donations made at events and activities before or on the May 3 Give Ozarks Day, prizes, and endowment matching funds.
In Houston, tallies were: Houston Education Foundation, $2,239; Texas County Food Pantry, $2,047; and TCMH Foundation, $6,163.
In all, there were 11,798 individual online gifts made to support Give Ozarks’ participants during the second year of the 24-hour fundraising event presented by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks and BKD Wealth Advisors. Thanks to generous sponsors, more than $100,000 in prize money was distributed. A complete list of prize winners is available at: giveozarks.org/prizes. In addition, the CFO distributed $100,000 in matching funds to 20 agencies that successfully raised $5,000 or more for endowment funds.
“The second Give Ozarks Day was bigger and better than ever,” CFO President Brian Fogle said. “We had more participating nonprofits, more gifts, more givers and more dollars. In short, Ozarks residents once again showed just how generous they can be when it comes to helping their neighbors. It was truly a great day for our region.”
The total number of online gifts increased 74 percent from the first Give Ozarks Day in 2015. Total online donations increased 48 percent. Overall funding, including offline gifts, prizes and endowment matches, increased about 16 percent from 2015.
Some other statistics about Give Ozarks 2016:
•The strongest hours for online donations were 8-9 a.m. and 4-5 p.m., with more than 850 gifts made during each of those hours. The amount of online gifts ranged from the $5 online minimum to $2,800. The average online donation was about $46.
•About 30 percent of donors indicated they were first-time donors to the organization they were supporting.
•The total number of pageviews for giveozarks.org on May 3 alone was 241,115.
Along with the CFO and BKD Wealth Advisors, the platinum sponsors include The Musgrave Foundation, The Commerce Trust Co./Coover Charitable Foundation and Ron and Janice Penney along with a host of Gold, Silver, Bronze and Supporting sponsors detailed atgiveozarks.org/sponsors.
Founded in 1973, the CFO is a regional public charitable foundation that serves donors, 49 affiliate foundations and more than 600 nonprofit partners and schools.