By tomorrow evening, Gainesville will be abuzz in amazingness - literally! That's because The Amazing Give, a 24-hour online giving campaign benefiting the region's local nonprofits will have officially kicked off providing an easy way for donors in our community to connect to charitable causes they care most about. The online giving drive that helps local nonprofits opens at 6 p.m. March 29th and closes at 6 p.m. on March 30th.
We are participating in The Amazing Give, and you can help us reach our $10,000 goal with a click of a mouse. All of the funds we raise will go to the Community Investment Fund, the only pot of money that stays local and helps to fund more than 30 deserving partner agencies in our six-county area including Alachua, Bradford, Dixie, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties. Every raised dollar through this fund is vetted and leveraged by up to three times by the agencies who receive the funds as grants through state and federal match dollars. That means your money goes further through United Way for the charities you love!
For every $1 you give to the Community Investment Fund, it becomes $3 more of impact in the community you live in. For a gift of $25, you could provide 11 meals to isolated seniors in rural areas. For a gift of $75, you could help one survivor of domestic abuse receive much needed financial literacy training to make it out of his or her situation for good. For $150, you could help one struggling kindergartner with 60 hours of one-on-one academic help.
What will you give to help someone change for the better? How can you be amazing with just one 24 hour period to do it in? Dr. Benjamin Mays said , "I only had just a minute... only sixty seconds in it, forced upon me, I can't refuse it. Didn't seek it, didn't choose it. But it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it. Give an account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute. But eternity is in it."
Gainesville, we have 24 hours. Let's be amazing in it. Our friends and neighbors are depending on us.