America's Giving Challenge Inspires More than 105,000 Donations

WASHINGTON, November 24, 2009 —The Case Foundation, Causes and PARADE Publications today announced the winners of the 2009 America's Giving Challenge.

The 30-day national online competition launched October 7, 2009, with an announcement in PARADE magazine and ended on November 6, 2009. It enabled individuals to compete for $245,000 in award money for the causes that they care about, brought together thousands of people and encouraged more than 105,000 donations which helped to raise $2.1 million for nonprofit causes.

As part of the Challenge, participants competed for daily and overall cash awards based on the number of donations to their cause, not dollars raised. A total of $170,000 in awards, $150,000 funded by the Case Foundation and $20,000 funded by the Aspen Institute, was announced at Challenge launch, and during the last week of the challenge, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced an additional contribution of $75,000 in award money.

In addition to helping nonprofits raise money and attract new supporters, America's Giving Challenge was designed to encourage individuals and nonprofits to experiment with new social media technologies and think about more strategic ways of leveraging social networking to engage supporters for their causes. By hosting the Challenge on its Facebook application, Causes provided individuals and nonprofits with new tools and methods for organizing at the grassroots level to maximize their impact and reach.

"America's Giving Challenge proved that thousands of individuals and nonprofits were up to the task of utilizing both online and offline personal networks to encourage people to give to the causes they care about," said Case Foundation CEO Jean Case. "The incredible number of donations and dollars raised demonstrates the potential for individual giving to have a significant impact, no matter how big or small the donation."

"Socially-driven, online grassroots organizing is transforming the way individuals and nonprofits think about engaging their supporters," said Causes co-founder Joseph Green. "By leveraging the Causes platform, America's Giving Challenge participants were able to harness their networks and generate an unprecedented amount of support for their causes."