The Pittsburgh Foundation

Day of Giving in 2013

Day of Giving in 2013 aims to top record
contributions received last year

PITTSBURGH, PA., May 21, 2013  --  The Pittsburgh Foundation will host its fifth annual Day of Giving on Thursday October 3, 2013 with hopes of further increasing the number of individual charitable contributions from donors in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.


Announcements for this year’s event have been sent to the region’s 650-plus nonprofit organizations registered to participate on the Foundation’s PittsburghGives and WestmorelandGives on-line sites that in 2012 attracted almost 18,000 individual donations in a 24-hour giving period.


More than $8.5 million was raised last year for the region’s nonprofits, and since the launch of the program in 2009, the Day of Giving events have raised over $21 million for local charitable organizations.
“When we first launched this event, none of us envisioned the success it would become, not only here in Pittsburgh but also in serving as a model for similar initiatives that have been introduced by a number of our community foundation colleagues across the United States,”  said Grant Oliphant, The Pittsburgh Foundation’s President and CEO.


“Many thousands of nonprofits have benefited from the generosity of increasing numbers of donors who have embraced the convenience of giving on-line and nonprofits themselves have excelled in utilizing technology to showcase the invaluable work they do on behalf of our community.”


Due to its unexpectedly high rate of growth, The Pittsburgh Foundation is introducing minor modifications to the program for 2013 and 2014 which are likely to result in further changes to the program from 2015 onwards.
“Our deliberations remain focused on how best to preserve and further develop the Day of Giving as a valued community asset,” said Grant Oliphant. “Our concern over the long term is that the program’s current format may become unsustainable based upon its current rate of growth. Our major considerations are that matching dollars will continue to decline each year due to the growth in contributions and our technological infrastructure will be insufficient to support the rising volume of donations.”


The Foundation will announce its planned change in format to take effect in 2015 as soon as it has completed an evaluation process that will include continued consultation with donors and nonprofit organizations, and discussions among the Foundation’s Board and staff.


In the meantime, the Foundation has committed to hosting the 2013 Day of Giving together with an event in 2014 which may form part of a planned national Day of Giving, at a date to be confirmed.


For this year’s Day of Giving, the match pool for Allegheny County is expected to be approximately $750,000, and for Westmoreland approximately $100,000, both similar to 2012. This year, to ensure a robust match percentage for participating nonprofits, the Foundation has determined that only the first $1,000 per individual per organization will be eligible to receive matching dollars from the match pools. In previous years, the cap was $10,000.


For last year’s Day of Giving, the match pool awarded 10.5 cents on every dollar received by nonprofits in Allegheny County. In Westmoreland, which had a separate match pool, the match was 14 cents on the dollar.
All nonprofits wishing to participate in the 2013 Day of Giving event are reminded to update or complete new profiles on the PittsburghGives or WestmorelandGives on-line sites by August 30, 2013.


“Our primary goals in launching this initiative were to help nonprofits increase the number of donors to their organizations, to help them grow individual giving and support using social media tools and to build a database of nonprofits to serve as a research resource for our community,” said Mr. Oliphant. “I am delighted that the success of the program has extended well beyond our initial objectives.”


PittsburghGives may be accessed at: www.pittsburghgives.org and WestmorelandGives at: www.westmorelandgives.org.