Education and children are the winners in Give Miami Day’s record breaking haul
Give Miami Day 2019 has raised more than $14 million in the past 24 hours — breaking last year’s $11.5 million record by a landslide.
For 24 hours beginning at 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Thursday, donations started pouring in for 834 nonprofit organizations in Miami-Dade County. Parties also popped up across the county to celebrate the giving day.
Organizers said they knew it would be a success when last year’s $11.5 million record was shattered three hours before the online campaign was set to end.
The campaign received 39,922 donations and ended the night with $14,478,840.
Artists in Residence in Everglades, a nonprofit that pairs cultural arts and environmentalism, won the $1,500 “Another Miami Moment Prize” for receiving the gift that led the campaign to surpass last year’s record.
“We are astounded and grateful for the generosity of Miamians,” said Joe Fernandez, interim president and CEO of The Miami Foundation. “Once again, the outpouring of support around Give Miami Day proves there is a collective community understanding that the transformative work produced by local non-profits has tremendous impact on the quality of life in Greater Miami.”
The campaign, which is one of the country’s largest giving events, didn’t just break last year’s fundraising record. Organizers said they also had a record breaking number of nonprofits and donations.
Since 2012, the 24-hour campaign has now raised more than 61 million dollars.
So, what nonprofits saw success?
Here’s a breakdown of the Top 10 leaderboards:
Most donations support children
Based on the Top 10 leaderboard of most donations raised among small, medium and large size organizations, educational and children nonprofits saw the most success this year. Most of these nonprofits work to improve education inequality in the community.
But there are a few surprises in the Top 10 leaderboard of most funds raised across all organizations.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden made it into third place with $332,155 and The Bass, a contemporary art museum in Miami Beach, locked into ninth place with $245,871.
If you were wondering who came out on top this year, just look to last year’s crowned champion. The Greater Miami Jewish Federation has once again raised the most money in the 24-hour period with a total of $669,854.
While the nonprofit didn’t meet or surpass its own $743,831 record from last year, it still surpassed educational nonprofit Achieve Miami, which took home second place with $433,907.
The Federation also came out on top for the most funds raised by a large nonprofit followed by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and KIPP Miami, an educational nonprofit that raised $305,933.
If you break the leaderboard down to medium-sized organizations, all the top three nonprofits are education based:
First is Achieve Miami, followed by The Children’s Movement of Florida’s $247,666 and Jewish-focused children’s nonprofit Chabad Chayil’s $206,738.
Herald Charities, which raises money for Wish Book, the annual campaign that kicks off on Thanksgiving Day and tells stories of South Florida’s neediest people, raised more than $8,000 this year.
Small organizations had diverse interests
The Top 10 leaderboard for small organizations has the most diverse results. Just look at the top three.
First place went to Friends of North Beach Elementary, which focuses on improving the educational experience for children at the North Beach school. It raised $128,328.
Second place went to Friends of Miami Animals Foundation ($60,852) and The Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment ($58,073) came in third.
The remaining top seven spots went to nonprofits that specialize in health, arts and other children-related or educational issues. Harvey Milk Foundation, an LGBT-friendly human rights nonprofit, also made the list.
Unique Donations & Champion Pages
Give Miami Day Bonus Pool had the most unique donations of 1,535. It raised $91,453
The Children’s Movement of Florida had 727 unique donations, followed by Pelican Harbor Seabird Station with 511 unique donations.
The Pelican Harbor Seabird Station is dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing sick, injured or orphaned brown pelicans, seabirds and other native wildlife.
One of the new features Give Miami Day had this year were Champion Pages. The website feature would enable people to save their favorite participating charities and create a personalized fundraising page to share online with family, friends and colleagues to help raise funds for your charity of choice.
This year, 694 Champion Pages were created. Out of the top 10 Champion page fundraisers, only four were not children related.
The Champion Page with the most funds raised $21,000 for Chabad Chayil.
To see the rest of the leaderboards, visit givemiamiday.org
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 12:26 PM.
