THE BIG GIVE

Monterey County Gives! keeps growing, thanks to the philanthropic spirit of our community.

By Dan Baldwin and Steve John

Each fall we scratch our heads at the improbable yet seemingly inexorable growth of Monterey County Gives!,

which this year brings together 213 local nonprofits and their Big Ideas.

It’s one thing to look back 15 years and know we couldn’t have conceived of this campaign becoming such a

force for year-end philanthropy. It is quite another to look back just five years to when Covid was raging and

see the campaign grow from $5.4 million to $7.8 million, and wonder how it then grew to $14.2 million in 2024.

There is no master plan full of metrics and doodads that guides us along this path. We attribute it to the

creation of a platform that not only promotes nonprofits, but makes giving easy; a large matching fund; the phil-

anthropic spirit of Monterey County residents; and the ability of participating nonprofits to fully utilize the ener-

gy of MCGives!

Since 2010, Monterey County Gives! has raised and granted more than $82 million. That number alone speaks to

profound support for our nonprofit community and its ability to bring much-needed services to the people of

Monterey County. These services range from mitigating food insecurity to caring for the elderly, environmental protection, health care, arts programming in its many forms, homeless services, education and more.

There are a lot of reasons to support our nonprofit community, and reasons to utilize MCGives! as the way to provide that support. One additional benefit to the 213 participating nonprofits is that Monterey County Gives! absorbs the administrative burden and cost of a year-end campaign, and comes with multiple benefits for the nonprofits. MCGives! accepts gifts of stock, credit cards, IRA qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) and, if you are so inclined, real estate (yes, that could be you!). The MCGives! website receives thousands of credit

card gifts each year and automatically sends acknowledgment letters that can be used for the donor’s tax deduction. These are letters that don’t have to be generated by the participating non-profits, saving them countless hours in gift processing and acknowledgment, and the real cost of letterhead and postage. And each nonprofit will get the benefit of the pro rata match on the first $75,000 it raises. Last year, the match neared 20 percent; this year’s match pool has already surpassed 2024’s.

Many of our nonprofits, from human services to food banks, arts organizations to environmental groups, are seeing drastic cuts in public funding. These cuts impact deliverables, meaning fewer goods and services delivered to folks who need it most.

However you choose to give and at whatever level, we urge you to simply give. Supporting the nonprofits that serve the people of Monterey County is good for us all.

Dan Baldwin is president/CEO of the Community Foundation for Monterey County;

Steve John is CEO of the Monterey Peninsula