Great Fish kick-off meeting for local nonprofits

Whitefish Community Foundation is asking nonprofit organizations to mark their calendars for the kick-off meeting of the 2016 Great Fish Community Challenge on Thursday, March 3 at the O’Shaughnessy Center.

The meeting will be held from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and is mandatory for any nonprofit interested in applying to participate in the 2016 Great Fish Community Challenge. Important dates will be discussed and questions answered about the second annual campaign. The application process will be open to nonprofits that attend the meeting.

The Great Fish Community Challenge organized by the Whitefish Community Foundation, raised over $1.1 million for local nonprofits and offered a 53 percent match on the first $15,000 raised by the 32 participating nonprofits. The Community Foundation is dedicating $200,000 to the Great Fish Match Fund to start off the campaign and it will go up from there.

The Foundation plans to select approximately 40 organizations to participate this year. The selection will be done by application. The Whitefish Community Foundation offers this campaign free of charge to the participating nonprofits.

Again this year, 100 percent of the costs will be covered by the Community Foundation with the help of this year’s title sponsor BNSF Railway and additional partner sponsors. The Campaign giving period will launch for the second time on July 12 and run until September 16, 2016. The Great Fish 5k/10k Color Run and Community Fair will be held September 10 in Depot Park.

For more information about the Great Fish Challenge or the Whitefish Community Foundation visit greatfishchallenge.org or whitefishcommunityfoundation.org or call 406-863-1781.