CFFC's Fayette Gives distributes $581,589 to local charities

“When we first started talking about having a giving day, it was in 2018,” said Renee Couser, executive director of the Community Foundation of Fayette County (CFFC), which hosts Fayette Gives. “I don’t think anyone at the foundation realized the impact it would have over the last three years.”

Since 2020, Couser said, they’ve distributed $1.3 million.

Fayette Gives is a 12-hour event that gives donors a chance to learn more about local nonprofits and give directed donations online. Live donation results and leaderboards are displayed on the Fayette Gives website throughout the day, showing how much each of the participating 88 nonprofits received.

This year, over 1,000 individuals and businesses donated to the participating Fayette County charities during the event, bringing in a total of $581,589 to distribute.

Of that total, $74,000 was from the bonus pool, which is money donated by the Fayette Gives sponsors. That bonus pool augments the nonprofits’ donation totals.

The top fundraiser year was City Mission-Living Stones with $88,101.

Dan Sochko, director of development for City Mission, said Fayette Gives came at the right time and was a godsend with government funding being cut and then COVID-19. Those two factors created many challenges for them, he said.

“[Fayette Gives] has become our biggest fundraiser for the year,” Sochko said. “The funding is critical to provide services for those facing homelessness.”

Touchstone Center for Crafts in Farmington received the second highest total at $57,383.

Lindsay Ketterer Gates, executive director of Touchstone Center for Crafts, said the center tries to be a good partner in the community by offering over $50,000 in workshop scholarship grants each year, as well as holding different demonstrations at public events and schools.

“The money will go into helping us continue what we’ve been doing and hopefully expand on that to some degree,” Gates said. “What a great thing for the community to recognize and shine a light on how many great organizations we have in the county.”

While St. Vincent de Paul Society came in fourth, receiving $21,429, they had the most individual donations at 163.

Dr. Ron Sheba, president of the board of directors for St. Vincent de Paul Society, said they’re grateful for all of the contributions. He also thanked CFFC for hosting Fayette Gives, as it is the only fundraiser in which the organization is involved.

“The number of people coming into our food pantry has doubled and doubled, people are hurting and we want to help as many as we can,” Sheba said, adding that the same food-distribution event that cost $8,000 last year cost $12,000 this year. “We’re grateful that so many people responded to St. Vincent and I think we can show we give direct aid right back to the needy.”

Sheba said it’s astounding to see that more than half of a million dollars was donated to support area nonprofits.

Couser told representatives from all of the nonprofits to mark their calendars. The 2023 date for Fayette Gives has already been set for Nov. 9.

To view the totals of this year’s Fayette Gives, visit www.fayettegives.org.