Here in Minnesota we are busy preparing for November 16^th, which is “Give to the Max Day.” During last year’s Give to the Max Day, more than 38,000 donors logged on to GiveMN (a new online fundraising platform initiated by the Minnesota Community Foundation.) The result: over $14 million for 3,434 Minnesota nonprofits, whose missions range from feeding the hungry, to protecting the environment, to promoting the arts. Give to the Max Day became the most successful one-day online fundraising drive in history, smashing the previous record of $3.8 million. This year’s goal is to engage more than 40,000 donors to give to their favorite Minnesota charities in just 24 hours. GiveMN is a collaborative venture to transform philanthropy in Minnesota by growing overall giving and moving more of it online. GiveMN is an independent 501(c) (3) supporting organization of the Minnesota Community Foundation. GiveMN is powered by Razoo. Razoo offers a secure platform, streamlined donation process and a suite of free and easy-to-use fundraising tools that inspire individuals and nonprofits to give and fundraise online.

GiveMN has provided an incredibly flexible and much needed tool for online fundraising for organizations of all types and sizes in Minnesota.  But for Springboard for the Arts it has been truly life changing!  Beyond the increased ability to move our own fundraising online and connect with our large social media network, GiveMN has provided a huge benefit to our artist clients.  Particularly the artists in our Incubator program.  Springboard’s Incubator program houses about 150 artist-led projects and provides fiscal sponsorship, marketing, development, legal and financial management help.  A pressing need for many of these artists and groups is to find simple, affordable online ways of reaching supporters.  We have been able to use GiveMN to allow these projects to set up fundraising pages (similar to Kickstarter or Kiva) that for some of them serve as their only website.

This year, support from the Knight Foundation is helping us provide increased support and marketing assistance to help the artists in our Incubator program make the most of GiveMN. You can see how our Incubator artists are using GiveMN here.

Recently, GiveMN was awarded the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits award for Innovation and the video that was produced featured Springboard and the ways in which our clients are using GiveMN.  Check it out here: