Last week, the Alliance for Nonprofit Impact at United Way of Rhode Island raised over $4.9 million — which will be divided among 644 local nonprofit organizations — at their sixth annual virtual fundraising event, 401Gives. Nonprofits say independent funding sources have become more important amid threats to their federal funding.
“Giving time” began at 6 a.m. on April 1, with the campaign raising $1 million within the first three hours. “As soon as we started, we were skating at a minimum of $700,000 ahead of where we were last year,” said Caitlynn Douglas, the manager of 401Gives.
“It was a success from the second that it started, and Rhode Islanders showed up and showed out,” she added. “They just simply did not stop giving the entire time.”
Fundraising efforts are usually scattered across nonprofits throughout the year, which makes raising significant amounts for “micro-foundations” difficult, said Michelle Henning, the president of the Hera Gallery, one of the nonprofits that participated in the fundraiser. Individual fundraisers can feel like vying “for your little voice to be heard in a bigger pool.”
In contrast, 401Gives “centralizes” giving efforts across the state into one organized event. “It’s just so much better than trying to do fundraising on your own,” Henning said.
The event also helps publicize “very small grassroots organizations” who might not typically have the funds for advertising, added Jennifer Wood, the executive director at the Rhode Island Center for Justice.
“More nonprofits participated than ever” this year, Douglas said. The fundraiser saw a 30% increase in total donations from last year, raising nearly $900,000 more than the organizers’ goal of $4.01 million, and far surpassing last year’s total of $3.7 million.
Every nonprofit that participates in 401Gives approaches fundraising differently, Wood said.
The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council mainly employs a method called “peer-to-peer fundraising,” said Jill Davidson, director of development and communications. This approach involves staff directly “reaching out to their networks” and asking for donations. About two-thirds of the funds they raised “came from staff members asking people they know,” Davidson added.
Foster Forward — which has been the top fundraiser for 401Gives the past five years — also focuses on calls and outreach, according to their marketing and communications coordinator Allison DeGerlia. Before the event began, youth who benefited from the organization’s foster care support programs called previous donors to express gratitude and remind them of the upcoming fundraiser.
“A lot of our donors and supporters really do have a real connection to our work,” DeGerlia added. “Our community really loves it.”
Since taking office, President Trump has signed dozens of executive orders taking aim at nonprofit funds and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Nancy Wolanski, the director of the Alliance for Nonprofit Impact at United Way of Rhode Island, is “very concerned about the impact of federal funding cuts on programs and services that our community depends on,” she wrote in an email to The Herald.
She added that the state budget deficit and proposed cuts to Medicaid mean nonprofits are facing “the potential of severe cuts to basic services and supports that will affect everyone” in the state.
401Gives was “super low on registration counts” through mid-March, Douglas said. She noted that some organizations hadn’t wanted to “be in the spotlight” because of these cuts, she said.
“We’re living in this world of uncertainty,” DeGerlia said. “We have a bunch of federal and state dollars that could be impacted, but we’re waiting to see how the cards are going to fall.” Foster Forward has been especially impacted by cuts to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, she added.
The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council is one of five R.I. nonprofits currently suing the federal government over grant freezes that affect planned environmental initiatives, The Herald previously reported. The unreliability of federal funds has “increased the need for events like 401Gives,” Davidson said.
In response to the federal funding freeze, United Way recently launched United Is The Way, “an effort to provide and raise additional resources for nonprofits affected by the federal funding uncertainty,” Wolanski said. Organizations who lost funding can apply for portions of the $500,000 fund.
“If nonprofits are going to continuously be asked to do more with less over this current administration, then we need to provide them those supports and those resources to do that,” Douglas said.
“We’re strategizing the best we can right now,” Henning said.
But even in a time when the world feels full of “disconnection,” DeGerlia was “amazed” by the breadth of support for 401Gives. “It just feels like such a bright spot, seeing so many people coming together for the overall good of the community.”
