Love Your Community
We are living in magnificent and strange times. There’s both excitement—and anxiety—all around.
Our parents or grandparents experienced similar feelings. Their generations faced world wars, unprecedented economic expansion, technological innovations (color TV!), population explosion, suburban flight, industrial globalization—in essence, a world completely different than the one their parents and grandparents experienced.
Still, this is our time, and there is much to be done in a world that often feels upside down.
This is our time to live and our time to get to work.
Many (but certainly not all of us in Monterey County) are in a position to make a much-needed impact for the good of our community: for the people who most need support, for the animals at risk, the environment, for the kids, for an uplifted cultural life.
Monterey County Gives! is what this issue is all about and inside these pages you will meet 158 local nonprofits and their Big Ideas.
MCGives! is a marvel, something on the magnificent side of local life. Last year, the campaign raised more than ever before—upwards of $3.6 million in six weeks—from 4,000-plus donors, also a record number.
And this week we kick off the 2017 MCGives! campaign with the largest matching fund ever, over $400,000 plus an additional $766,094 in Challenge Gifts raised by the participating nonprofits—over $1.1 million—to start the campaign. We’re off and running, and we’re running fast.
It will take you some time to read about all the nonprofits in the following MCGives! guide, but we invite you to take your time to learn about the meaningful work being done in your midst. The invitation is for each of us to identify organizations we feel affinity to, and support them with $10 or $10,000, whatever makes sense for you. You can learn about these groups in this guide, pick your favorites and share them online at mcgives.com, and then donate simply online.
I find these nonprofits’ ideas, missions and visions invigorating and uplifting. The testimonials about their work are amazing. It’s impressive to see how people we know are committed to creating this good, to helping those who otherwise might be forgotten or left behind, to creating new ideas and programs that make us all shine.
Bradley Zeve
Founder & CEO
Monterey County Weekly
