The big day has come and gone, as Copper Shores and Non-profits of the Copper Country gathered yesterday for Giving Tuesday. And starting today Copper Shores Community Health Foundation’s staff will begin the hard work to count up all of the checks from the Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign. Throughout the month the area has already begun to donate hard-earned dollars, and as of yesterday at noon, says donor relations coordinator Michael Babcock, the groups reached the day’s matching goal.
“So as of noon, we did reach our match amount of 250,000 dollars. So we have hit our match which is a good thing. And that’s not to say that donations aren’t still being matched. Each group will receive a percentage of the match for the percentage of donations they receive. So a group with a larger percentage of the donations will get a larger percentage of the 250,000 dollar match. What I can’t say is exactly where we will end up at the end of the day. It’s going to take our staff a little bit of time to sort through all of the checks. We probably have over 1,000 checks already. And that’s a lot of paperwork to go through to make sure that’s right. And that every penny will go to the organization it was meant to go toward. But I have high hopes that our community’s going to come out and do similar to what we have seen in the past. And in years past that’s been more than half a million dollars raised for these non-profit organizations.” – Michael Babcock, Director of Donor Relations, Copper Shores Community Health Foundation
The Keweenaw snowmobile club’s vice president Chad VanBennekom says that they were grateful for donations as they support the club’s big move into Calumet.
“We’re very happy to be receiving this donation towards Giving Tuesday. To go towards the completion of the groomer barn. It’s been under construction for a while now, and we’re excited. This is another monumental step toward getting it finished.” – Chad VanBennekom, Vice President, Keweenaw Snowmobile Club
As of a Facebook post shared by Copper Shores around 4 pm, Giving Tuesday raised over 300,000 dollars. Over the coming weeks, Copper Shores will account for every dollar donated. Babcock did say that the foundation hopes to complete that task a little quicker than in years past but added that the accounting does take staff the most time during the Giving Tuesday season. Thank you to all who helped to support this year’s 30 non-profit groups.