SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Community Foundation presented 14 organizations with more than $74,000 raised from this year's Change Your Pace Challenge at their annual banquet Aug. 11. Foundation Executive Director Claire Muller recognized that many people give time and energy to local organizations that provide important services to the area, "it's wonderful to help be a part of encouraging essential financial support for these causes."
The Foundation is a locally driven and locally supported 501c3 nonprofit that invests in the health and prosperity of the Seeley Lake community. A major function of the Foundation is to help charitable groups in Seeley Lake fund projects to benefit the Seeley Lake community.
"In this capacity, SLCF strives to be a community resource and a catalyst for innovative approaches to improving the quality of life in Seeley Lake," wrote Muller. "We're excited to encourage community philanthropy and increase support for all the great work our local groups are doing."
In its fourth year, the Foundation's CYP Challenge is a campaign for community-wide giving, celebrating the people and organizations that make the community a great place to live.
During the designated fundraising period, the intent of the CYP Challenge is to motivate community members to give to their favorite participating local nonprofits, knowing their gift will be matched thanks to the generous businesses and individuals that give to the Match Fund. All donations go through the Foundation, allowing donors to support as many organizations as they wish, using one donation form.
The CYP Challenge began with big support from an outside group, and over the last two years, transitioned to primarily local community support for the CYP Match Fund. Last year $15,000 was raised for the CYP Match Fund. Muller wrote she was very pleased with the more than $13,000 that was raised for the CYP Match Fund this year.
"It's inspiring for me to see donors to the CYP Match Fund, interested in supporting the work all of our local groups are doing!" wrote Muller. "Thank you to everyone who donated to participating organizations, but I'd like to give a special thank you to the Match Fund Contributors! Energy Partners was a headlining sponsor this year."
Since its inception in 2016, the CYP challenge has raised more than $332,000 to support Seeley Lake area organizations. Even though the Change Your Pace Challenge was only six weeks this year, instead of 10 weeks, the total raised was up $10,000.
"I think the community is getting used to this program and looking forward to using it as a way to give back each summer," wrote Muller in an email. "A shorter fundraising window increases the urgency for donors to give, which I think helps explain why this year was so successful."
The Foundation produced and distributed a physical brochure that explained the work that each group was doing and included the donation form to accompany the contribution. Muller wrote that the Foundation tried to promote online donations to the CYP Match Fund, however that wasn't as successful as promoting the individual participating organizations through Facebook.
"I think this valley is used to mailing in donations, so online donations campaigns, especially through Facebook, wasn't super successful," wrote Muller. "The good news is, that means there's room for growing online donations in the future."
Each participating organization raised as much money as they could. Organizations received 100 percent of the money donated on their behalf plus the percentage up to $5,000 from the CYP Match Fund of $13,102.36. The totals included: Alpine Artisans, $8,604.54; Blackfoot Challenge, $10,933.87; Clearwater Resource Council, $1,126.63; Seeley Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Fourth of July Firework Show, $6,981.24; Seeley Lake Community Foundation (did not receive percentage from the Match Fund), $2,532; Seeley Lake Historical Museum and Visitor's Center, $3,075.58; SLE Community Park, $1,553.98; Seeley Lake ROCKS, $5,471.46; Seeley Lake Senior Center, $4,772.01; SSHS Destinations for Education, $900.01; Sparrow's Vine, $9,349.91; Swan Valley Connections, $10,587.71; Upper Swan Valley Historical Society, $5,813.64 and Veterans & Families of Seeley Lake, $2,431.95.
Muller said the Foundation intends to evaluate the effectiveness and discuss how to streamline the CYP Challenge this fall.
"The idea of the Change Your Pace Challenge is to make donating easy for people and to help get the word out about all of the projects and programs and organizations going on here. I think there's a lot of value in even just getting groups' names out there," wrote Muller. "Hopefully we'll be able to continue to raise comparable Match Fund levels moving forward as we did in 2018 and 2019!"
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