Glitches didn’t halt the giving

Despite unfortunate technical glitches, this year’s Giving Day on May 3 proved yet again the power of harnessing social media and technology to catalyze philanthropy.

More than 900 nonprofits across the Palmetto State came together to embrace online giving, hoping to stimulate donor engagement and attract new donors. Many surpassed their donation goals and received critical funding for their missions. This success is even more significant given that major technology glitches caused what should have been a positive and uplifting experience to be a frustrating mess for many nonprofits and their donors.

Giving Day is a national crowdfunding event hosted by Give Local America. For 24 hours, individuals are encouraged to come together and support local nonprofits through online donations.

Give Local America’s Giving Day does for philanthropy what the United Way Days of Caring do for volunteering — offering increased visibility and ease of participation to attract those who might not otherwise donate.

By now you may have heard that technical problems impacted the online giving platforms used by South Carolina’s five Giving Day efforts. Yet, all five host organizations found ways around the glitches, and our state had one of its most successful Giving Days to date. Central Carolina Community Foundation even went as far as to create a new URL to handle online donations, so Midlands Gives could continue without missing a beat. Several extended their Giving Day deadlines until noon the next day.

Despite technical obstacles, the five lead foundations, the many businesses that provided challenge grants and the tens of thousands of individuals who took time to give 34,000 individual donations helped raise $6.2 million. These contributions will positively impact communities in 29 of South Carolina’s 46 counties. In comparison, Georgia raised just $3.7 million during its giving day in the fall, and it was statewide.

Coastal Community Foundation’s Lowcountry Giving Day took in more than 19,000 donations, raised $4.2 million and doubled the number of nonprofits participating to 387 across nine counties. This was a whopping 31 percent increase in the number of gifts.

For Give Local Lancaster, the J. Marion Sims Foundation exceeded its goal for this, its first year, by raising more than $60,000, plus $30,000 in matching funds from sponsoring businesses; 821 gifts were given, benefiting 36 nonprofits serving 83,000 citizens in the foundation’s service area.

In the Columbia area, Midlands Gives raised more than $1.6 million and accepted more than 12,500 gifts for 382 participating nonprofits across an 11-county service area.

Officials estimate that technology problems with the national website reduced giving by 25 percent compared to last year. They were one of the most active social media participants, and their hashtag #MidlandsGives was trending on Twitter the entire 24-hour period.

As a member of Central Carolina Community Foundation staff said: “The fact that the nonprofits continued to rally their donors and many local leaders were vocally supportive of the effort made the day successful despite the problems. They were creative, resilient and worked so hard to make the experience a positive one for their donors.”

Further up the road, the Spartanburg County Foundation received more than 1,200 gifts for its 75 participating nonprofits, raising more than $365,000 in its second Giving Day and exceeding last year’s total by nearly $40,000.

In Florence, Give Big Pee Dee raised almost $40,000 and received more than 460 gifts before the national website failed. Sarah Shelley, executive director of Eastern Carolina Community Foundation, the day’s host, shared with me that the foundation hosted “Bring Back Big Give” on May 10 to give nonprofits and donors a second chance, hoping to exceed the $70,000 raised last year and turn the snafu into a triumph.

In the end, both the philanthropic host organizations and the nonprofit leaders did what they do every day: They came together, worked extra hard and extra long, tackled unexpected challenges, found innovative solutions and made the best of a difficult situation.

Such perseverance benefits us all, not just on Giving Day, but every day.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Glitches didn’t halt the giving."