The end of year fundraising period is upon us and this time of year is a big deal in the world of nonprofits. From GivingTuesday to end of year giving and annual appeals, many nonprofits receive a large portion of their donations in the last month or so of the year. In fact, approximately 30% of all annual giving occurs in the month of December, with 10% happening in the last 3 days of the month!
This end of year giving tends to start with GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. GivingTuesday follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday and is a day to celebrate generosity, after a long weekend of celebrating consumption.
Here at Phillips Wharf, GivingTuesday and our end of year fundraising is necessary to keep our nonprofit running during the off season, when our programming has slowed down. With the Fishmobile put away for the winter, our ability to bring in revenue is greatly reduced. However, we still have animals that need care 7 days a week, staff to pay, programs to plan and schedule for the following season, newsletters and social media posts to write, grants to apply for, and an oyster restoration program to manage. However, many of these activities are provided for free and so don’t pay the bills that come in throughout the year.
Last year, for our end of year fundraising, we pledged to match every dollar raised by picking up 1 piece of trash. With the help of our wonderful donors and volunteers, we picked up over 4400 pieces of trash around Talbot County. While we’ll definitely bring this back in future years, this year, we wanted to bring the opportunity to win prizes into the mix for our donors.
Starting on Tuesday, November 28th at midnight, every person that makes a minimum $10 donation will receive an entry into our Year End Fundraising Raffle. We’ve reached out to a number of local businesses to provide you with a slew of fun prizes. On Saturday, December 31st at 12:00 pm, we’ll draw the winning raffle tickets during our winter Open House at Phillips Wharf from 11 am to 1 pm. During the Open House, we will be open to the public so that you can come in and see our animal ambassadors and displays, plus we’ll have hot chocolate and apple cider available.
More details about the raffle:
- Eligible donations are those made from 12:00 am on Tuesday, November 28th until 12:00 pm on Saturday, December 31st.
- We’ll only give one raffle entry per household, so multiple donations will not get you additional entries. This helps level the playing field so that all our donors have the opportunity to win.
- However, it is possible to earn a bonus raffle ticket if you give through the MidShore Gives platform on GivingTuesday. Any donors who give on this platform will receive TWO raffle entries for their household. Please note this platform is only available from 12:00 am until 11:59 pm Tuesday, November 28th. However, donors using this platform can earn bonus donations for Phillips Wharf, which is why we are providing a bonus raffle ticket.
- Donations made through any platform are eligible for a raffle entry. These include our Facebook fundraising page, our own donation page through Network for Good, MidShore Gives, and cash or check donations made during the specified timeframe. Please note that if you are mailing a donation, it must be received by the end of day Friday, December 30th in order to receive a raffle entry. Online donations must be made by 11:00 am on December 31st so that we can get your raffle entry in the drawing. In person donations can be made up until the start of the drawing at 12:00 pm on December 31st.
- Some prizes have age restrictions (ie. alcohol) so age verification will be required for those items.
- Winners do not have to be present at the Open House. However, prizes must be picked up from the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center, unless they can be mailed in an envelope. Winners will be contacted to arrange prize pick up and we will hold the prizes for up to 1 year.