By Anna Fontus, 2019 Inspire Giving Communications Committee
Program Manager, Capitol Impact LLC
Inspire Giving: How to #MakeYourMark in the Community
Every once in a while we have an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than what we do in everyday life. Our mission as the Give Committee is to give more young professionals more opportunities to extend their community impact beyond their 9 to 5. Metro EDGErs are excited about Sacramento, and have used EDGE is just a first step in engaging in conversations that impact current and future investments in Sacramento, whether from investors or government funds.
In 2017, Metro EDGE chose to support Inspire Giving on an annual basis. By partnering with a giving program, we have been able to underscore the importance of young professional involvement in funding decisions, provide leadership opportunities to EDGE members, and lastly, choose beneficiaries that either were led by or served young people (or both!). The partnership with Inspire Giving is different from other charity programs because EDGErs can choose the area we prioritize (youth, energy, health, etc.) and the beneficiary. A small contribution is a big opportunity to lead in our community. I hope you’ll join us on May 2nd, on Big Day of Giving to help EDGE reach its goal of $10,000 for Inspire Giving, to make sure our involvement improves Sacramento for years to come.
– Rick Cogil, co-chair of our GIVE committee
What is Inspire Giving?
Inspire Giving is an endowment fund administered by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. Individuals contribute to Inspire Giving to be able to collectively give a donation larger than they could give on their own. Every year Inspire Giving provides a $10,000 grant to help fund a specific project for a local nonprofit. Through our leadership team, donors, and partnerships, Inspire Giving also provides in-kind services, donations, and support depending on the project needs. In nine years, Inspire Giving has supported nine nonprofits through $95,000 in grants and over $1,000,000 in in-kind support and services. Truly, a little is enough, if enough people do it.
What else should I know? And how does it work?
Towards the end of each year, the Metro Chamber determines what area/sector we should solicit applications from and who should be granted $10,000.
If you donate $25 or more that year, you get to participate in the selection process of BOTH the giving area and recipient. The reason we talk about it so much is because this is not common among giving programs.
The Inspire Giving web page has a list of past recipients.
Final words? Where does my donation go?
Inspire Giving supports organizations that are lacking capacity to make their goals reality. In many cases, they don’t have full communications, marketing, supplies, or personnel to keep everything afloat. Typically our award helps them sustain, improve and expand their work so they can impact more people in Sacramento!