'There's a cause out there for everyone': In-person events to highlight Give Local York 2022

A return to in-person events after a two-year hiatus has given Give Local York something more to celebrate than its fifth anniversary.

The 24-hour day of giving will return at 12:01 a.m. Friday, May 6, and continue through 11:59 p.m. the same day. Donors can visit www.givelocalyork.org to make their gift.

Give Day Coordinator Kate Harmon is excited about being able to have in-person events for the first time since 2019.

"For us, Give Local York is a countywide celebration, and for the past two years we haven't been able to celebrate," she said. "We love that when GLY is happening, you can't miss it because it's everywhere. We have nearly 300 nonprofits and something for everyone, so we're just screaming into the community together for support."

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In-person events will include nonprofits providing street-fair-type activities on the streets of Downtown York during First Friday, a Give Local York-themed York Revolution game at PeoplesBank Park and a Finale Concert to follow outside the stadium. Participating Give Local York nonprofits, volunteers and sponsors will be invited to celebrate their hard work as the totals are tallied until midnight.

"The fun thing about Give Local York is that the nonprofits can plan their own events," Harmon said. "We always joke that they bring their own hustle to the day. You'll see so many nonprofits teaming up with businesses for coffee, lunch, dinner or other events."

The Give Local York Livestream, GLY Live, will continue — presenting a real-time virtual event dashboard that will showcase total dollars raised, top participating organizations, leaderboard updates, donor feed and more.

As many organizations have had to cancel fundraising events these past years because of the pandemic, Give Local York has provided an opportunity to raise critical dollars essential to fulfilling their mission.

Last year, in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the community came together to raise $3.7 million for more than 300 local nonprofit organizations, which was a record for the event.

"We've been so grateful to continue to break records every year since we started in 2018, and it's always been because of our great community," Harmon said. "From sponsors to individual donors, what we do would be impossible without them. We really do believe that while the pandemic has shown us a lot of ugly things in the world, it's shown us that people want to do some good and give back where they live. With nearly 300 nonprofits, there's a cause out there for everyone to support. We believe in the power this county has to lift itself and each other up, and we're happy to be a platform for donors of all ages, old and new."

A total of 11,090 individuals gave to Give Local York last year. The average online gift last year was $98.95, while the average offline gift was $710.97. A total of 20,736 gifts were given last year.

Businesses also did their part in getting Give Local York to its record amount raised. Corporations gave $261,885 in matching donations to organizations last year. A total of 47 businesses held fundraisers for the cause last year with $122,479 raised. A total of 556 employees of those businesses gave to the cause.

The top three nonprofit organizations in terms of money donated to those organizations last year were: Human Life Services, $122,917.80 (279 donors); York County Libraries, $113,915.15 (993 donors); and Equiteam Support Services, $74,726.20.

The top three nonprofit organizations in terms of donors were: York County Libraries, 993 donors; Childcare Consultants, 609 donors ($38,156.89 raised); and York County SPCA, 458 donors ($60,440.30 raised).

The goal for Give Local York 2022 is for more than 11,100 donors to make a gift on Give Day at www.givelocalyork.org.

In the four years since its founding, Give Local York has raised $11.74 million for local nonprofits from tens of thousands of donors from all over the region, the state, the country and the world.

While the organizations all benefit from what is donated on Give Day, they also benefit from special prizes and matches given on donations that day. For example, the first organization to receive a donation at midnight will receive $500 courtesy of Fulton Bank. Also, the organization that receives the most individual donations in the first hour, receives $1,000 courtesy of Fulton Bank.