Great Fish campaign kicks off

Let the giving begin.

The third annual Great Fish Community Challenge launches this week. The Whitefish Community Foundation will hold a launch party for the Great Fish Thursday for the Gone Fishin' event at First Interstate Bank from 5-7 p.m.

The 10-week giving campaign features 45 nonprofits and begins with a $200,000 match fund. The Community Foundation organizes the challenge and provides the matching funds to inspire the community to give to the participating nonprofits while at the same time promoting awareness about the work of local nonprofits.

Linda Engh-Grady, president of the Whitefish Community Foundation, said the Great Fish is a charitable giving campaign.

“This helps the community raise even more money,” she said. “The matching grant is an incentive to the community to give.”

Last year the challenge raised over $1.4 million for the 40 participating nonprofits. The first year it raised $1.1 million for 32 nonprofits.

Engh-Grady said the goal is to increase that total.

“I'd like to see it go well over $2 million this year,” she said. “I think the nonprofits are really embracing this and I think the community understands what we're doing. I think we can raise more money.”

Giving will begin right away as the Community Foundation offers $500 worth of grant opportunities to nonprofits for donations made at the launch party Thursday. During the evening, donors will be entered to win an extra bonus grant of $25 or $50 for their selected nonprofits by making a donation at the launch party.

“We're going to be drawing about every 15 minutes,” Engh-Grady said. “We want to get people giving.”

More than $15,000 of bonus and incentive grants are expected be awarded to nonprofits this year during the Great Fish.

Every week during the campaign, an incentive grant will be announced running Monday through Sunday. The announcements will be released the week prior in the Whitefish Pilot and on social media sites.

The first incentive grant will be awarded to the nonprofit that receives the most individual donations between July 24-30.

Engh-Grady said the incentive grants will change every week of the campaign. For example, one week nonprofits that don't have paid administrative staff will be eligible and another week it might be given to the nonprofit that gets the most Facebook likes.

“Instead of pulling names out of a hat [as was done previously],” she said. “We thought this would give an incentive for people to give a little bit more.”

This year the Community Foundation has increased the match for the overall campaign to the first $20,000 raised and will continue to grow the Match Fund. The final match percentage will be announced at the awards celebration in the fall.

When donors give to the match they are essentially giving to all 45 participating nonprofits.

Also new to this year's Great Fish Community Challenge is a jingle competition. Nonprofits in the Challenge are invited to submit a jingle about the challenge. Three jingle finalists will be selected by a panel of judges and will perform at the Community Celebration on Sept. 9. The winner will be chosen through a community vote and awarded a $1,000 grant at the Great Fish grant awards presentation Oct. 12.

The Great Fish culminates with a Community Celebration Sept. 9 at Depot Park with the Great Fish 5K Color Run and nonprofit fair. Sign up for the Color Run and get a free T-shirt, while supplies last, at http://www.greatfishchallenge.org/5k-color-run-and-fair/.

Donors can start making gifts on July 20 online at www.greatfishchallenge.org, or by sending in an official donor form.

Official donor forms for the challenge will be mailed out and available in newspapers, at the Whitefish Community Foundation office, local downtown businesses, Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, and from participating nonprofits. Forms can also be downloaded from the website. The campaign will officially end on Sept. 15 at 5 p.m.

For more information about the Whitefish Community Foundation and the Great Fish Community Challenge visit the foundation website at www.whitefishcommunityfoundation.org or call 406-863-1781. The Whitefish Community Foundation is dedicated to fostering philanthropy, building endowments and helping donors and nonprofits benefit the community.