The Charlotte Observer this week covered the launch of Power2give.org a new website that gives Charlotte art lovers the opportunity to choose exactly how they want their money to be spent on cultural projects.

The article highlights the new site’s unique way of engaging and connecting visitors directly with the wide variety of cultural events in the city and how it allows them to share their ideas with others:

“A visitor to the site can filter the requests by topic – such as music, visual art, history or science – or search for a specific cultural group. A viewer who’s won over by a project can make a donation by credit card. Links to Facebook and Twitter enable donors to tip off their friends.”

Visitors to the site can also search projects by percentage completed, most recently announced and amount of funding remaining. For example, Art Brings Hope to Life, a project of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art has raised 79% of the $2,000 needed to continue providing its hands on art program to homeless adults and families.

In the four days since the site went live eight projects have been funded, 236 donations have been made and more than $40,000 has been raised.

The site also provides insight into recently completed projects, such as the Bring a Ballet to Life Campaign, which raised $10,000 enabling the North Carolina Dance Theater to underwrite this season’s production of Bolero, which will be featured as part of Dance Theatre’s Director’s Choice series, October 13^th-15^th at the Knight Theater.

In order to help launch the site, Knight Foundation is matching every donation made to Power2give.org, dollar-for-dollar.

The site, a project of the Arts & Science Council, will launch in Miami in the fall.

To learn more, visit the website and follow @power2give on Twitter.