Why are donations important? Where do they go?
Today is Giving Tuesday! Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement that unleashes the power of people and organizations to transform their communities around the world. The day started in 2012 simply as a day that encourages people to do good, it has evolved into a global movement that inspires millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.
In honor of Giving Tuesday, I’d like to take the time to explain why donations are so important for nonprofit organizations and what we do with the money we receive from donors. From finding office space, to hiring staff, to implementing projects, running a nonprofit organization can be pretty expensive! For example, as a nationally certified Main Street organization, we must allocate at least 30% of our budget to operating costs. This means renting office space, hiring staff, maintaining our website, and purchasing office supplies. The rest of our budget goes towards our projects and programs. For example, one of our summer camps generally costs about $3,000-$5,000 to run for 1-3 days. It costs about $2,000 to run the annual Fall Festival and it will cost nearly $4,000 to repair the banner brackets on the light posts and place banners throughout town. As you can see, all these costs add up very quickly.
So how do we pay for all of this if we do not operate on a for profit basis? We have multiple streams of income that help support our non-profit. One of these is a contract with Mora County. We perform economic development tasks for the county, and in return they pay us for our services— contingent upon the current year’s budgetary allowance. We also hold fundraisers (such as our t-shirt sales and scarecrow sponsorships) and apply for grants which help us pay for our projects and programs.
Donations are also an extremely important part of our fundraising efforts. The MCC has several different funds for our various projects including a reading program fund, a Fall Festival fund, and a beautification fund, among others. Donations are a great way to gauge the community’s interests in specific projects because donors can give to the exact cause they want to contribute to. If you want to donate $10 for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, we will put the donation in that specific fund, so it is spent exactly where you want to spend it. If you wanted to split that $10 between the Imagination Library Fund and the beautification fund, it could be easily done as well. Donations are the perfect way to show us what you care about and what projects you want us to focus on!
I’d like to encourage you all to get into the spirit of Giving Tuesday this year by lending a helping hand to a neighbor, volunteering with a local organization, donating to a cause you care about, or spreading the word about a fundraiser on your social media. If you would like to give to the Mora Creative Council to help fund projects right here at home, click on the yellow donate button above. Or if you’d like to volunteer your time and talents contact us at ourmoranm@gmail.com and we’ll match you to a project! Thank you again to our wonderful community for your continuous support.
Questions or comments? Email us at ourmoranm@gmail.com