What started as a graduate school project has turned into Long Beach’s biggest fundraising tradition — a 24-hour annual giving frenzy that’s collected nearly $8.7 million for Long Beach nonprofit organizations over the past five years.
The event, Long Beach Gives, is on Sept. 19 this year, but early giving is already open — starting today. This month’s goal is the biggest yet: aiming to surpass the $2.07 million raised for 243 nonprofits last year. The year prior, the online campaign raised $1.96 million for 222 nonprofits.
In 2019, the first year of Long Beach Gives, the team had a goal of just $250,000 for 75 nonprofits, said Michelle Byerly, Long Beach Gives co-founder and executive director of The Nonprofit Partnership. They blew that goal out of the water, raising $822,000 for 93 nonprofits.
“The goals are really [set by] the nonprofits; what we do is we provide a platform. We provide the training and the resources, the marketing materials and then marketing and awareness around the campaign,” Byerly said.
Why September? Julie Meenan, co-founder of Long Beach Gives and executive director of the Josephine Gumbiner Foundation, said it’s the sweet spot after nonprofits typically hold fundraising activities and right before they launch into events. The goal was also not to interfere with year-end giving.
“Every year, Long Beach Gives presents the opportunity for our residents to support their favorite nonprofit organizations — those who have boots on the ground, who serve the diverse needs of our communities, and who make Long Beach such a wonderful place to be,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “Anyone who has spent time in Long Beach knows that we have the strongest community spirit around, and this is another way our city shows it.”
For its sixth installment, the team behind Long Beach Gives decided to hold a summit in late June to get representatives from local nonprofits together face-to-face for the first time since the pandemic. Nearly 300 people attended.
Stephanie Bandera, mobile arts coordinator for Able ARTS Work, which provides arts enrichment opportunities to marginalized communities, attended two breakout sessions at the summit. The most impactful one featured a panel with different participants from local nonprofits sharing tips and tricks about raising money during Long Beach Gives.
“I’ve seen some other campaigns that other cities do that are similar, but nothing has been like Long Beach Gives. Nothing has compared to the organization and the support that they give,” Bandera said.
Able ARTS Work was founded in Long Beach by Helen Dolas in 1982 with just a handful of clients at a parks and recreation center.
The nonprofit provides therapeutic, vocational and educational art and music services for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
In her role as mobile arts coordinator, Bandera arranges for those services to take place at the homes of about 22 adults with intellectual disabilities.
Bandera said the waitlist is full for her program.
“There’s just so many people who need this service,” Bandera said.
Last year, donations for Long Beach Gives were up, but the number of donors was down, Byerly said. Even so, more than one-third of the 9,310 donations received last year were first-time gifts to the organizations that received them.
“Really getting more donors that are giving and learning about nonprofits is one of the main goals this year,” Byerly said.
The Long Beach Gives website is unique in that users can make donations to multiple organizations at once in one transaction.
Users can also click a button to re-donate to previous causes they have supported during Long Beach Gives.
“It allows you to diversify how far you’re spreading your wealth as well and having your dollars kind of stretch even further,” said Christina Kreachbaum, director of The Nonprofit Partnership.
You also don’t have to have deep pockets to donate. The minimum donation starts at $10.
Hundreds of nonprofits on the website can be filtered into categories based on operating budget, 16 mission categories or geography.
Categories include animal care and welfare, arts and culture, environment, education, children, youth and family, individuals with special needs, social justice, housing and homelessness, civic and community engagement, food security, seniors, social services, mental health, economic development.
Another unique feature of Long Beach Gives is the prizes, with 30 awards totaling over $12,000. The prize pools are split into three groups based on operating budget.
The small nonprofits have a budget of less than $100,000, medium is between $100,000 and $1 million, with large at over $1 million.
Three nonprofits in each category are awarded a prize for the most dollars raised, most unique donors, most peer fundraiser profiles and most unique donors to a peer fundraiser profile.
“Peer-to-peer pages are super important because then those individuals are able to reach out to their own networks and say I support organization X and I volunteer there and I think very highly of them and I’d like you to learn more about them,” Meenan said.
It’s a feature that is commonly used for fundraisers held by larger organizations, like runs or walks for the American Heart Association.
“Having a small nonprofit have the ability to do the same thing has really helped them to reach all those new donors and get individual donors for their organization,” Byerly said.
Another unique prize is the 908 boost, named for the first three digits of every Long Beach ZIP code. For that prize, a $100 boost is added to the first five online donations made at 9:08 a.m. and 9:08 p.m. on Sept. 19.
To ensure small nonprofits are given as much attention as the larger organizations, Long Beach Gives receives guidance from a 13-member steering committee.
Jeff Williams, director of community engagement for Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, joined the steering committee in 2021.
He worked closely with The Nonprofit partnership during his previous role as executive director of Leadership Long Beach and said he was eager to join the steering committee for Long Beach Gives.
“This is kind of the one time when we can focus the community on supporting our non-profit sector as a whole,” Williams said. “Our city is better because of the gaps that nonprofits fill and it’s a chance to just say ‘Hey let’s make sure they’re supported and recognized.’”
Tiffany Roberts, director of the Farmers & Merchants Bank Foundation, has been a steering committee member since 2022.
F&M Bank is a corporate sponsor of Long Beach Gives, providing funding to cover general expenses and operations of the program, including staffing, training, materials, event costs and other program needs.
“Julie Mennan, the Gumbiner Foundation and The Nonprofit Partnership are well-recognized drivers of good in Long Beach and, with that, F&M knew that Long Beach Gives would be an initiative that was meticulously put together, effective in driving change, and long-lasting,” said Merilee Langdon, senior vice president & director of marketing for F&M bank.
Griselda Suarez, executive director of the Arts Council for Long Beach since 2016, said her focus on the steering committee is to ensure professional development resources are provided to small nonprofits who may not know how to run a fundraising campaign.
“There’s a lot of resources, which is really important. The steering committee is there to ensure that we continue to keep that part of Long Beach Gives as strong as possible,” Suarez said.
The Long Beach Post and Business Journal are participating in Long Beach Give this year. If you’d like to donate to our nonprofit to support our student-focused election coverage, click here.