The 1st Annual Napa Valley Give!Guide Creating a culture of giving NOV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 61 You’re on vacation. You collect memories, a few trinkets, and an iPhone filled with photos. When Amy Garden went to visit Portland, Oregon, she came home with all that, plus a bit more. Luckily for Napa Valley nonprofits and the diverse communities they serve, Garden, a Napa Valley CanDo volunteer, came back with a memento that became the inspiration for the Napa Valley Give!Guide. As Hilary Zunin, CanDo’s co-founder, puts it, “It was way better than a snow globe. In fact, it was something that will help CanDo cultivate a culture of giving in the Valley for years to come.” Inspiration came in the form of the Willamette Week Give!Guide, a Portland-based publication and website that highlights the phenomenal work of their local nonprofits. It creates a simple way for people to help these worthy causes in a campaign of year-end giving. “When I saw how easy the Give!Guide made it for people to support local nonprofits that make such a difference in the community, I knew it would be a great fit for CanDo and the generous people of the Napa Valley,” Garden says. Her fortuitous discovery, combined with the hard work of a group of dedicated volunteers and the support of community partners like the Gasser Foundation, Napa Valley Vintners and Thrive Napa Valley, has resulted in the Napa Valley Give!Guide, CanDo’s latest project. The Willamette model for the Give!Guide is beautiful in its simplicity: Choose one or more local nonprofits that you’d like to support and give $10 or more to each of them. For the Napa County program, there are 40 from which to select, and they’ve all been given the “seal of approval” by the Give!Guide selection committee. Whether you’re able to give a little or a lot, simply go to napavalleygiveguide.org. Check out 40 organizations from up and down the valley that are doing amazing things right here in Napa County. Are you an animal lover? An ardent supporter of the arts? All about saving the earth? A supporter of education? Dedicated to youth and seniors? Seven categories make it easy to find nonprofits that resonate with your interests: animals, arts, community, education, environment, health and wellness, and youth and seniors. Donate online from November 1st through December 31st. The website, in English and Spanish, has everything you need to make a contribution that will directly benefit our communities. If you choose to give to more than one group, say $10 to one and $15 to another, your donations will be added together into a single, tax-deductible transaction. But each nonprofit will receive the funds you’ve designated for them. Neither CanDo nor the Napa Valley Coalition of Nonprofit Agencies, its fiscal sponsor in this venture, takes any kind of fee. “The Give!Guide website design makes it a snap for people to donate. That’s what CanDo wanted to achieve. Our organization’s motto is ‘Easing the path from intent to action,’ ” says Nancy Fireman, a Give!Guide volunteer. “We know that people have the best of intentions and that most truly value the wonderful work of local nonprofits. But too often, those intentions don’t get translated into action. The Give!Guide campaign helps transform those good intentions into reality by gathering donations starting at $10. People can even make donations using their smart phones and tablets.” Since the Give!Guide is designed to appeal particularly to young and first time givers, social media is also a key component of the Give!Guide campaign. A real-time ticker keeps track of donations so we can all see the progress day by day. Each of the 40 nonprofits will have a day when they’ll be featured on the website and on social media. “This is where people can learn even more about the nonprofits – who they are, what they do and who they help,” says Give!Guide volunteer Erica Pickett. Follow the progress of the Give!Guide campaign at napavalleygiveguide.org, on Facebook at facebook.com/napavalleygiveguide or facebook.com/napavalleycando, or on Twitter at twitter.com/nvgiveguide. To learn more about Napa Valley CanDo and the many ways you can help our communities thrive, go to www.NVCanDo.org, email NVCanDo@gmail.com or phone 707.252.7743 CanDo volunteer creates a remarkable oportunity for county nonprofit donations Donate at napavalleygiveguide.org CanDo is proud to bring the Napa Valley Give!Guide to the generous people of Napa County November 1 through December 31, 2013. You make a choice. You make a difference. We make it easy.
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