Nonprofits hope to cash in on Giving Tuesday

You can help feed rescued tigers at the Performing Animal Welfare Society in Calaveras County, buy art supplies for kids who take classes through the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento or give the gift of transportation to clients of United Cerebral Palsy of Northern California.

Thousands of nonprofit groups in the Sacramento region and around the globe plan to use the power of social media for the next 24 hours to help boost their budgets during an online fund raising campaign dubbed Giving Tuesday.

Since its launch in 2012, Giving Tuesday has become one of the most important days of the year for organizations that rely heavily on private donations. Last year, more than 40,000 nonprofits around the world raised more than $168 million during the campaign.

Participants typically set a goal for the day, then use online prompts to encourage donors to go to their websites and Facebook pages to contribute to their cause.

In advance of the big day of philanthropy, dozens of organizations large and small in Northern California have been vying for attention and dollars in recent days via Twitter, Facebook and email.

They include WIND Youth Services, the Sacramento LBGT Center, the Sacramento Children’s Home, Pug Rescue of Sacramento, the California Council of Land Trusts, Sacramento Housing Alliance and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

For more information about participating organizations in the Sacramento area, go to www.givingtuesday.org and click on the “search nearby” button.

Some organizations use the event to highlight specific programs or raise money for special projects. Sacramento’s Fairytale Town, for example, is asking people to donate toward a new play area inspired by popular West African folk tales that star a spider named Anansi. The Dyslexia Alliance seeks money to pay for educational kits about the disorder to give to struggling schools in Sacramento County. UCP of Northern California wants dollars to fill gas tanks of buses used to transport disabled people to appointments.

The Performing Animal Welfare Society, which cares for elephants, tigers and other creatures “retired” from the entertainment industry, is hoping to raise $27,000 on Tuesday. That would be enough to feed and care for all 18 of its rescued tigers for a month, said founder and president Ed Stewart. Another group, Tigers In America, has agreed to match each donation made to PAWS on Giving Tuesday up to $10,000, Stewart said. All funds raised during the event will pay for medicines, staffing and raw meat meals for the big cats, he added.

Beyond the money, Giving Tuesday offers a chance to educate the public about the plight of captive animals that live on the vast PAWS compound in San Andreas, he said. Each of the animal’s stories is featured on the PAWS web page.

“It’s a really good thing for our projects and it allows us to accomplish more than one thing. Plus, it’s a real morale booster for all of us,” Stewart said. “Everyone gets involved. It’s exciting.”

.

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Nonprofits hope to cash in on Giving Tuesday."