GREENSBURG, Pa., December 2, 2010 -- In an unprecedented outpouring of support for the county’s charities, Westmoreland’s Day of Giving yesterday pumped nearly $300,000 into local nonprofit organizations.

 

More than 950 individual contributions were received over a 15-hour period – 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. yesterday – on the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County’s (CFWC) WestmorelandGives on-line giving and research portal. Gifts ranged from the $25 minimum to $5,000.

 

Public contributions at 9 p.m. last night reached more than $197,000, which receive an equal share of the matching funds of $100,000 provided by CFWC, from its grantmaking resources and through special fundraising initiatives undertaken by its Advisory Board members.

 

All data is preliminary and is subject to financial and administrative reconciliations by Foundation staff, which is expected to be completed by early next week.

 

“I am delighted with this phenomenal outcome,” said Kirk Utzinger, CFWC’s Executive Director. “We congratulate our Westmoreland community on a truly magnificent success, way beyond our hopes and expectations. A significant amount of money was raised by individuals and this will go directly to support critical work of our nonprofit organizations.”

 

WestmorelandGives replicates The Pittsburgh Foundation’s successful PittsburghGives platform, originally launched in 2009. CFWC’s merger with The Pittsburgh Foundation will be completed by the end of this year.

 

WestmorelandGives benefited from the improvements made to the PittsburghGives program in providing a directory of nonprofit organizations and on-line giving tools, developed as an easy-to-use web database to help donors research information about local charitable organizations.

 

“Our main objectives were to encourage engagement and support for our region’s nonprofit organizations and to promote individual charitable giving in our community,” said Kirk Utzinger. “This represented CFWC’s entry into the new and exciting field of on-line charitable giving and the results prove how this has been enthusiastically embraced by our community as an easy and convenient way to give.”

 

The WestmorelandGives platform serves as a unique vehicle for nonprofits to showcase their work in the community, detailing information about their charitable programs, missions, management and finances. 71 of the 72 local nonprofits with completed profiles on the site received contributions in yesterday’s Day of Giving.

 

WestmorelandGives can be accessed at www.westmorlandgives.org

 

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