Spring2ACTion Raises More Than $1.2 Million for Alexandria Non-Profits

PHOTO: Spring2ACTion raised more than $1 million Wednesday; John Porter, Brandi Yee, Heather Porter, Kerrin Epstein pause for a photo. Photo courtesy of Spring2ACTion

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Alexandria’s annual online giving day, Spring2ACTion, generated $1,276,909 for 129 Alexandria nonprofits in just 24 hours Wednesday. The popular giving day continues to grow each year in record fashion with thousands of donors and nonprofits participating.

Top 10 with the most donors were:

1. Maury Elementary PTA: 859 donors: $75,373
2. Homeward Trails Animal Rescue: 849 donors: $34,703
3. Alexandria Soccer Association: 688 donors: $47,217
4. King Street Cats: 625 donors: $60,521
5. Casa Chirilagua: 595 donors: $90,965
6. Empowered Women International: 467 donors: $30,506
7. Potomac Crescent Waldorf School: 333 donors: $22,346
8. Bishop Ireton High School: 321 donors: $50,000
9. Arts on the Horizon Inc.: 283 donors: $12,136
10. Mount Vernon Community School PTA: 243 donors: $13,710

In 2014, Spring2ACTion raised a little over $1 million dollars from 7,500 individual donors. This year, 9,431 individuals joined forces with local restaurants and boutiques to participate in the crowd-funding event. Hosted by ACT for Alexandria, Spring2ACTion is the only citywide giving day in the region designed to strengthen the impact of local nonprofits.

Participating nonprofits represent a wide variety of causes, including legal services, animal rescue, food and shelter, health and wellness, arts and music, schools and PTAs and early care and education. From providing scholarships to summer camp to building playgrounds and providing meals to low-income families, the money raised during Spring2ACTion will continue to have a tremendous impact on the community in the coming year.

“Spring2ACTion is about more than raising critical dollars for local nonprofits,” says John Porter, President and CEO of ACT for Alexandria. “It’s about bringing the entire community together to support nonprofits that give back to our city every day. We hope that by focusing our goals on engaging more individuals and businesses in giving, we’ll further strengthen the connections between nonprofits and the greater community.”

As part of this citywide giving day, nonprofits had the opportunity to benefit from the proceeds of sales contributed by the Old Town Boutique District and stores in the Del Ray Business Association as well as from local restaurants including Holy Cow, Pork Barrel BBQ and Sweet Fire Donna’s.

Top Prize Winners included: Maury Elementary PTA, Casa Chirilagua, and Arts on the Horizon.

Prizes were also awarded for a competition dedicated to the arts called Spring4ART. Living up to its mission of providing affordable space to local arts groups and fostering collaboration and creativity in the community, Convergence hosted a Spring4ART open house to showcase the 20 different participating Alexandria Arts Forum nonprofits. The event featured Alexandria’s Mobile Art Lab, receptions by local artists, and musical performances.

As online giving and peer-to-peer fundraising continues to increase in popularity, Spring2ACTion is on the forefront of online giving. While the average global crowd funding donation by an individual totaled $88.22, in 2015, the average Spring2ACTion donation was $85.46. Thanks to this incredible generosity from donors, participating nonprofits raised an average of $9,899 to support their programs in just 24 hours.

Spring2ACTion was sponsored by the Maury Lane Fund, Lauren Stack, The Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation, the Mason Hirst Foundation, Harry and Maria Hopper, Speck-Caudron Investment Group of Wells Fargo Advisors, Neuhaus-Speck Family Foundation Fund, and the Frantz Family Fund. Community partners include Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, the City of Alexandria, Causetown, Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, SpottedMP, Six Half Dozen Design Studios, Old Town Boutique District, Del Ray Business Association, Holy Cow, Sweet Fire Donna’s, Pork Barrel BBQ, Sugar Shack Donuts, the Alexandria Arts Forum, Whole Foods, Virtue Feed & Grain, Dulce Studios, and Visit Alexandria. Spring2ACTion was administered on the Razoo platform.

For a full list of all winners and sponsors, please visit: www.Spring2ACTion.org